Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Brandis. Will the minister inform the Senate of how the Australian government is supporting the arts in Australia? Further, will the minister advise how this approach compares with that of the Australian Labor Party and, in particular, with that of state Labor governments?

Robert Ray (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order. As you would realise, Mr President, the second part of that question is out of order. One is allowed to ask about alternative policies but not about those of a specific party. That type of question has been ruled out of order dozens of times. I would have thought their questions committee would have straightened this out.

Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Brandis, you will answer that part of the question which is relevant but not the last part of the question.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. The Howard government’s support for Australia’s cultural institutions in particular and creative industries overall is one of its proudest achievements. The best way, I think, to determine the level of interest in and support for the arts in Australia by this government is the amount the government has been prepared to commit to funding our major cultural institutions and cultural agencies. Let us make a comparison. Mr Paul Keating, a former Labor Prime Minister, has taken it upon himself to complain that the arts are not funded in Australia as well as they ought to be, a complaint he made at the Sydney Film School in July this year. Mr Keating is right: the arts are not funded by government as extensively as they should be, but the fault lies exclusively in state Labor governments, which have cut arts funding across the board. The only Australian government which is supporting the arts by putting real money behind cultural institutions and creative industries is the Howard government. Let us compare the record.

In the last year of the last Keating Labor government, total Commonwealth support for the arts was $410.93 million. This year, in the 2007-08 budget, support for the arts through funding of Australia’s cultural agencies had risen to $681.11 million, an increase of some 66 per cent or $270.2 million across that period, including a massive increase from $73 million to $161 million in support for the Australia Council, which directly funds individual artists and projects.

Wherever I go around the country, arts leaders say to me two things. First of all, they say, ‘We want to thank the Howard government for the very strong support that it has given the arts agencies and the creative industries in Australia.’ In fact, as recently as 15 August, during her visit to this Parliament House, Ms Cate Blanchett, the distinguished Australian actress, and her husband, Andrew Upton, came to see me to commend the government for the very strong support that the government has given drama in this country—as evidenced by a 40 per cent increase in funding for the Sydney Theatre Company. The previous month I happened to be at a function for the Queensland Orchestra—a function which the state’s arts minister did not bother to attend, I might say—and the director of the orchestra, Mr Michael Smith, described the support of the Australian government for the orchestras of Australia as nothing short of terrific.

Mr President, I suppose if you are not interested in the sector then you would not commit any funding to it. The other question that arts leaders ask me is: ‘Why can’t we get any interest out of the shadow minister?’ You probably do not even know who the shadow minister for the arts is. Who is it? Can I tell you that it is Mr Peter Garrett. Mr Peter Garrett is so interested in the arts that he is yet to ask a question about the arts in all the time that he has been the shadow minister. (Time expired)

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Would the minister further explain why the government will not be adopting alternative policies that he may be aware of?

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It would be nice to be able to say why the government will not be adopting alternative policies. I suppose the simple answer is: because we are interested and the opposition is not, as everybody involved in the arts community in Australia knows. For almost all the life of the Howard government, the arts portfolio has been represented by a Senate minister—Senator Alston; then my illustrious predecessor, Senator Kemp; and now me. I checked to see how often arts ministers have been asked a question in this chamber—

Honourable Senators:

Honourable senators interjecting—

Alan Ferguson (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! There is far too much noise in the chamber, and I call this chamber to order.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Minister for the Arts and Sport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The last time an opposition senator asked a question about the arts was two years and three months ago, when we had a sudden effusion of interest in the Sydney Dance Company, from Senator Carr. On two other occasions in the last six years questions have come to the arts minister in this chamber from the opposition. That is how interested the opposition is in arts policies. We will not be adopting any alternative policies simply because there are none. (Time expired)