Anthony Albanese, Tony Burke unveil new arts policy

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However, the enthusiasm of others has been tempered as they await the fine print and final funding details on the policy – the first since the Gillard government’s 2013 Creative Australia plan.

Arts Minister Tony Burke confirmed $286 million of new money will support a new award-giving body, Creative Australia, which will take over and expand the functions of the old Australia Council.

The Australia Council’s name will remain as the governing body of the new organisation.

Creative Australia will include four new investment bodies, which will have responsibility for First Nations works, writing, music and policing workplace harassment.

Burke also confirmed that legislation will be introduced in Parliament later this year regarding Australian content quotas for companies such as Netflix. An exact figure will be decided after consultation with the industry.

One of the initiatives Burke predicted was the restoration of funding for digital game development that was cut a decade ago. A State of the Art report will also be released every three years to monitor the health of the sector, as is currently happening with the environment. Australia will join the United Kingdom, Canada, United States and Ireland in appointing a new position of poet laureate to encourage a love of this highly regarded art form.

The National Gallery of Australia, home of Jackson Pollock’s Blue Poles, has also received $12 million to fund long-term loans of works from its collection to share with regional and suburban cultural institutions across Australia. But wider funding for cash-strapped national cultural institutions will await May budget discussions.

The government has promised to review student university contributions for the humanities and to look at the flexibility an artist needs when looking at Centrelink’s mutual obligation requirements.

Albanese said his government’s new policy was a bright and overdue moment for the sector. “You endured a decade in which opportunity was not so much missed as discarded, limited by the years of the pandemic, in which the loss of opportunity was compounded by what was a calculated neglect,” Albanese said.

Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) federal president Simon Collins praised the Revive policy and its commitment of nearly $300 million in new spending.

“Of course, one policy does not erase the neglect of the sector over a long period of time. And the success of this policy will depend on how it is implemented, including how arts funds are allocated in the future,” he said.

“But this is an important milestone in providing confidence to artists that they are valued and respected by government and the community, and MEAA is keen to play a constructive role in delivering on the promise of this policy.”

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