More than 60 senior arts leaders and artists travelled to Canberra yesterday to discuss changes to arts funding, but the Minister for the Arts refused to see them.
Source: Brandis refuses to meet with arts industry | ArtsHub Australia
The delegation mainly from the small-to-medium sector and from all states and territories travelled to Parliament House in Canberra yesterday in an attempt to meet with federal politicians about the funding cuts. It came as the Government faces a Senate Inquiry into the transfer of $105 million from the Council to its own National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA).
Prominent artists at the meeting included novelist Hannah Kent, representing little magazine Kill Your Darlings, Simeon Moran of Ilbijerri, David Pledger of Not Yet It’s Difficult, the Australian Art Orchestra’s Peter Knight and Todd MacDonald of La Boite. The meeting was held in a committee room in the Senate.
Theatre Network NSW is also aware NSW delegates including Katrina Douglas from PACT, Bec Dean from Powerhouse Youth Theatre, Claire Edwards from Ensemble Offspring, Dean Walsh as an Independent, Emma McMaries from Applespiel, Paula Abood as an Independent, John Davis from Elision and the Australian Music Centre.
The rest of Ben Eltham’s excellent report on the delegation is further below but in a quick update for those of you waiting to hear what is happening in Sydney on July 2nd this is what has been discussed so far:
2 July meeting in Sydney
- Important to ensure digital engagement to meet regional needs, disability access needed.
- Public face and internal long-term actions around sector needs both addressed in meeting.
- Concept of one voice for the arts – means of how to do this needs to be talked through – Cultural Industries Foundation UK good model – trying to build muscle and unify ourselves is a positive thing that can come out of this process.
- Encouragement to join the union
- Encouragement to develop support to cover costs of indep /others to attend meeting in Sydney
- Small video cuts of first national rally has been developed – will put on #freethearts website
TNN recommends that if you would like to be involved in the 2nd July in any way or have questions about what you can do to ensure you or your company have a voice in these matters:
a) get in touch with us
b) hook up with the #freethearts campaign
And now for Ben Eltham’s story continued…
When asked by Senator Jacinta Collins whether he had met with the delegation, Brandis replied, ‘The Abbott government has such a wonderful story to tell about arts funding.’ He did not answer the question about the delegation but said he and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had ’not an hour ago met with representatives of AMPAG, the Australia Major Performing Arts Group, which represent the 28 most significant performing arts organisations in the country’.
Minister Brandis declined to appear and, in a snub to the sector, no representatives of the government appeared on his behalf. But in a pointed display of the Government’s agenda, the Minister later revealed in Senate Question Time that he had found time to meet yesterday with the Australian Major Performing Arts Group, or AMPAG.
The Minister’s statement underlined the division that the new Government policy is driving between the majors – which Brandis has promised to maintain at current funding levels – and the small-to-medium companies and independent artists, which will bear the brunt of changes. This division is now so deep that some smaller companies are planning a protest at the silence of the majors in the face of the Budget changes.
Meanwhile the 60 arts delegates meet with Labor and the Greens MPs, including Labor’s Jacinta Collins, Andrew Giles, Tim Watts, Graham Perrett and Melissa Parke and Scott Ludlam from the Greens. Labor’s Arts spokesperson Mark Dreyfus gave a short speech in which he committed the ALP to reverse the changes announced in May’s Budget.
‘Labor believes that this change should be reversed,’ Dreyfus replied in answer to a question from David Pledger as to whether Labor would return the funds to the Australia Council.
‘I thought that [peer review] would be a settled piece of bipartisanly-supported government policy,’ he lamented.
Dreyfus went on to criticise the lack of consultation about the Budget changes and defend the role of the Australia Council and the concept of peer review. ”The Australia Council got half an hour’s notice on Budget night,’ he said. ’That shouldn’t be the way we make policy in any area in his country.’
The meeting took the form of a question and answer, in which artists expressed their concerns about Brandis’s Australia Council funding raid.
The National Association for the Visual Arts’ Tamara Winikoff told the politicians that the changes would ‘impact really seriously on the small-to-medium organisations and individual contemporary practitioners’.
Novelist Hannah Kent told the meeting that the funding cuts would have ‘broad social impacts that will affect all aspects of Australian life’ and warned that ‘the major companies risk becoming moribund without the contribution of the vital small-to-medium sector’.
Andrew Brooks of Sydney’s First Draft gallery defended the role of peer review. ’Peer review is a democratic and transparent process,’ he said.
In response, the politicians present spoke about their understanding of the value of the small-to-medium sector, with MP Tim Watts telling those present about a recent Western Edge Youth Arts production, Iago, with a powerful message regarding family violence. He also said he attended Footscray Community Arts Centre “most weekends” with his children.
The Greens’ Scott Ludlam spoke about the widespread support for the Senate inquiry to investigate the NPEA, which was resoundingly passed on Tuesday. ‘It’s very rare that Labor, the Greens and the entire cross-bench are united against a dumb idea,’ Ludlam said.
The meeting broke up in good spirits, with delegates obviously pleased at the level of support shown for the Australia Council and the smaller organisations and working artists it supports. Planning is underway for a larger meeting in Sydney in July.
However, the fact that no Government MPs attended provided a stark reminder of the scale of the challenge confronting the sector.
In a pointed display of the government’s agenda, Brandis later revealed in Senate Question Time that he had found time to meet yesterday with the Australian Major Performing Arts Group, or AMPAG. [insert link to Silence of the Majors story]
When asked by Senator Jacinta Collins whether he had met with the delegation, Brandis replied that “the Abbott government has such a wonderful story to tell about arts funding,” before revealing that he and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had “not an hour ago met with representatives of AMPAG, the Australia Major Performing Arts Group, which represent the 28 most significant performing arts organisations in the country.”
In a pointed display of the government’s agenda, Brandis later revealed in Senate Question Time that he had found time to meet yesterday with the Australian Major Performing Arts Group, or AMPAG. [insert link to Silence of the Majors story]
When asked by Senator Jacinta Collins whether he had met with the delegation, Brandis replied that “the Abbott government has such a wonderful story to tell about arts funding,” before revealing that he and Foreign Minister Julie Bishop had “not an hour ago met with representatives of AMPAG, the Australia Major Performing Arts Group, which represent the 28 most significant performing arts organisations in the country.”
