Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of this particular package of bills today—the Creative Australia Bill 2023 and the Creative Australia (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2023. This is an important step forward. Our arts industry and creative workers right across the country have suffered over a decade of funding cuts, dismissals and being ignored.

That all came to a crunch, of course, during the COVID period. It was the arts and creative workers whose jobs were cut and workplaces were shut down literally overnight. They were the first to be caught in the COVID lockdowns, and they were the last to come out and start recovering. In those first crucial months, it was disappointing to see the former government, the Morrison government, do very little to support artists and creative workers to get through. It was only by dragging the former government kicking and screaming that they finally acknowledged that some support was needed. But, of course, that was just the tip of the iceberg.

It had been a decade of running down our cultural institutions, of dismissing the importance of the creative industries in our broader economy, of dismissing and ridiculing even the support for the creative education programs, whether music, art or drama, in our schools and broader education institutions. It had been attacked, cut, attack, cut for well over a decade.

Hundreds of thousands of workers in this country are in our creative industries. They contribute hugely to our national economy. Their contribution to our national identity, to our global democracy, to our soft diplomacy, to our education and to our community social cohesion is priceless. Yet, year after year, we see our creative industries put in the too-hard basket and at the bottom of the pile when it comes to government funding.

I welcome this piece of legislation. It is one small step to starting to restore the huge amount of pressure our creative workers have been under for far too long. But it's important to acknowledge in this debate today that there is a massive funding shortfall in relation to delivering the promises that have been made by the current government.

This Creative Australia Bill creates a new framework for what has previously been known as the Australia Council. It broadens the ability for this particular agency to ensure it touches on a broader range of workers and important elements and programs of our creative industries, but the bill doesn't have the funding that is going to be needed to really make this new agency zing.

The incorporation of Music Australia under this new banner is a very welcome move, something the Greens campaigned for long and hard. But, again, a new agency, a new program and a new set of legislative instruments are only as good as the funding given to make sure they can actually do the job and get the outcomes intended.

Artists' jobs are real jobs. The creative industry is an industry of genuine, real workers and businesses. In fact, the creative industries are made up mostly of small business across this country—often sole traders or small businesses working hard to contribute not only to their local community but also to the broader economic success of this country. There are also more women employed in our creative industries than almost every other industry in the country.

Most creative workers struggle because they are the first, the original, gig workers. We hear a lot about the gig industry in the tech space these days. But, broadly speaking, the creative industry was the original gig industry, and they still continue to struggle with the gig-to-gig arrangements. We to get that fixed as well. Our artists, particularly our performing artists, deserve minimum pay. They deserve a minimum wage for the work that they do. I note that that is not part of this package—but it is something that the government needs to consider. If there is a Labor government in office, surely the Labor government of the day should be considering a minimum wage for creative workers, just like we expect a minimum wage for everyone else.

Our creative industries are the future of our economy going forward. Our creative industries ensure innovation, creative thinking and problem solving—all skills that we desperately need in our new economy and for future jobs. It is disappointing that, when the Minister for the Arts, Mr Tony Burke, announced Labor's policy, which included the Creative Australia package, that there was no extra support for arts education in our schools. If we want to ensure that our kids have the skills and the abilities for what the future economy and future workforce looks like we need to make sure that they have access to creative learning. That means art classes, music classes and drama classes. Every child in this country should have the right to learn music and art, and at the moment they don't.

It might be okay for those kids whose parents are able to afford the private school fees. But, if you are one of the majority of Australian young students, you don't go to private school; you go to the local public school. At the local public school there is no guarantee that you can learn art, drama or music—and there should be, If we want the brightest minds, the most creative thinkers and the most innovative workers for the future, all of the science, all of the studies and all of the evidence shows that arts and creative learning is the best way to achieve that.

The Greens will support this package. There are lots of good things in here, but we need to ensure the funding gap is met. I urge you: if you really care about the next generation of creative workers in this country, start funding art classes in schools. Make it a right of every student in this country—every child—to access music classes, art classes and performance classes. We will have a much better generation, fit for the future workforce, if we do that. I commend the bills to the Senate.