Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by ministers to questions without notice asked by Opposition senators today.

Senator Brandis's answer confirmed that both Get Reading!—a $6.4 million program—and the $9.5 million Indigenous Languages Support program are to be abolished. He did not give any justification for cutting these programs nor did he give any justification for $100 million being cut out of the Arts portfolio—something the sector thinks is deplorable.

What we do know is that Senator Brandis's taxpayer funded bookshelves, which house his taxpayer funded book collection, will not be cut. His books will be there for him to read at his pleasure. But when it comes to encouraging other Australians to read, he has complete disregard and is quite happy to cut Get Reading! and its $6.4 million. No wonder Senator Brandis has been called, correctly, one of the meanest and least generous of all ministers for the arts in Australia, presiding over some $100 million in cuts that will have devastating impacts on the arts and cultural activities in this country.

Labor believes that the arts are a vital part of Australia as a nation. They are part of our identity. They are what make us who we are as Australians—arts and culture. That is why under our time in government we increased arts funding to ensure that Labor's Creative Australia policy would receive some $200 million in funding for the arts. This budget has taken most of that funding back.

How can Senator Brandis justify himself as an arts minister? In 2007 Senator Brandis, as arts minister said: 'The minister who had been most generous to the arts in terms of funding was me.' That is a down and outright lie. That is not correct because we know now, clearly, that he is one of the meanest. We only need to look at what some of the key spokespeople in the arts have said about the arts funding in this budget. Matthew Deaner from Screen Producers Australia said that film makers are concerned at 'a disproportionate cut to Screen Australia' including to a key area of industry innovation and multiplatform games. The agency received some $100.8 million in funding in 2013-14, but it is now losing $25 million in government funding over that period plus the termination of the Australian Interactive Games Fund.

Further clarification of the meanness of this minister comes from Sue McCreadie, the Actors' Equity director, who says that the cuts threatened the recent 'renaissance of Australian drama' ignited by extra funding for drama production on the ABC. We know also that cuts have been made to the ABC as well. Ms McCreadie added:

Australians want to see local content on our screens, everyone loves it. But where's the future?

Where is the future, Senator Brandis, when you are cutting some $100 million out of arts and culture in this country?

In Senator Brandis's answer he spoke of the ballet. I asked him specifically about the abolition of the $6.4 million to the Get Reading! program, and the only answer he could give was to talk about the funding to the ballet. Well, Senator Brandis, the arts are more than just the ballet. He acknowledges the diversity of the arts, but only wants to talk about the ballet. The arts extend right across a range of arts and cultural platforms, all of which will suffer now under these cuts that this government has announced. There are cuts such as $38 million over four years to Screen Australia and $28.2 million to the Australia Council. That is something that is well beyond what Ms McCreadie thought to expect from an efficiency dividend. Of course, we also know of the cuts to the ABC and SBS.

This is an appalling budget when it comes to arts and culture. Something that was a Labor legacy, where the arts finally had a strong footing, has now been ripped from under just about every arts organisation in this country. Senator Brandis should be ashamed of that.