The Herald's View: A writer of satire might find mild inspiration in Labor’s forging of a new National Cultural Policy, but the ambition is big, and the architecture assembled to get there is substantial too
A seven-person expert advisory group will give the government “overarching strategic advice” on a “whole-of-government” policy, as Arts Minister Tony Burke has described it. The group includes novelist Christos Tsiolkas, arts philanthropist Janet Holmes a Court, and historian and author Clare Wright, which, as casting goes, is a near-perfect combination of rigour, nous and flair.
The Australia Council was gutted by $105 million over four years. In 2019, the arts portfolio was abolished and funding decisions moved to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications – a move that spoke volumes about the Morrison government’s hostility to a $100 billion-plus industry.And then came COVID.
“The centrality of the artist” will be no such thing without a viable plan for cultural workers to put food on the table; a recent survey of the Australian Society of Authors, for instance, found 81 per cent of respondents earned less than $15,000 a year from creative practice.
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