I'm very pleased to speak to the Australia Council Amendment (Creative Australia) Bill 2023, which will make several important changes to the mandate and functioning of the Australia Council for the Arts. These changes are a significant step in the implementation of our new national cultural policy: Revive. The policy, Revive, has been informed by the concerns, insights and ambitions of Australia's arts community, with whom the Minister for the Arts and I have been in close dialogue since the Albanese government took office.
The creation of the Australia Council for the Arts, in 1975, was a signature reform of the Whitlam government in terms of cultural policy. It replaced a number of pre-existing bodies and created a single statutory agency. It was founded on the basic principle that artists, not politicians, should be at the centre of funding decisions. The creation of the Australia Council not only increased funding in the arts but also introduced a more focused strategy to the federal government's investment in Australians' creativity. In introducing the first Australia Council bill, Prime Minister Whitlam said:
It will be the first task of the Council to promote excellence in the arts. Next, we want it to provide opportunities for people to practise the arts and for the public to appreciate and enjoy them. We want to promote the general application of the arts in the community and foster the expression of a national identity by means of the arts. We want to uphold the right of everyone to freedom of artistic expression. We want to promote a knowledge and appreciation of Australian arts in other countries. We want to promote incentives for, and recognition of, achievement in the arts.
They are an amazing set of words. At the time that Whitlam said them, there was an urgent need for intervention. For decades, creative Australians have been taking their ambitions to more supportive environments overseas. The increased local support provided through the Australia Council helped to stop this outgoing tide of Australian talent and allowed Australian artists to realise their ambitions in their own country.
For more than five decades, the Australia Council has built and maintained the faith of Australia's arts community. It has nurtured the careers of generations of artists and arts workers. It has supported the creation of countless powerful works of music, visual arts, dance, theatre, literature and other art forms. It has given Australians improved access to cultural experiences and brought Australian art to the world. Its place at arm's length from government and removed from political interference has allowed it to act as a guarantor for freedom of expression in Australia. This independence has been fundamental to the council's credibility and effectiveness. In a healthy democracy, we should expect to see public funds spent on creative works that extend boundaries, that are challenging and that, at times, make politicians feel uncomfortable.
From the very beginning, the Australia Council has been a forceful and effective champion of First Nations' cultural expression. The Australia Council Aboriginal Arts Board was one of the very first instances in which self-determination was integrated into the structures of government. The Australia Council not only funds the creation and presentation of artistic work but also provides research and advocacy on issues affecting the cultural sector. It develops artists' capacity, skills and networks in order to expand markets and audiences for Australian creative work.
The Albanese government recognises the value of this legacy and the enormous benefits of public investment in the arts. That's why we want to equip the agency to be as effective as it can be for the years ahead. This bill takes the first step in the strengthening and the modernisation of the Australia Council for the Arts. These reforms will amount to the most significant changes to the organisation in its history. The bill will enable the Australia Council to operate under its new name: Creative Australia. Whether or not the arts community will let go of the nickname 'AusCo' remains to be seen. The governing board of Creative Australia will continue to be known as 'the Australia Council'.
The bill will also enable the Australia Council to commence work on the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces from 1 July this year. This is an important and really urgent expansion to the Australia Council's mandate.
On 1 September 2022, the Raising their voices report was released. It detailed the scale and severity of sexual harassment, bullying, discrimination and other forms of harm within the music industry. The findings detailed in the Raising their voices report were harrowing, but, sadly, they were not surprising. The problems raised in the report have been an open secret for a long time, and action on these issues is long overdue. The experiences of those who provided evidence for the report needed to be heard and acted on. One respondent described a manager who was 'notorious for hiring young women'. They said:
You're made to feel you were so lucky to be working there. He had grossly sexual behaviour. If you resisted or said something about it, there would be retribution.
Another respondent left the music industry entirely, saying:
Music saved my life so many times before, and now that it is being taken away. It's been devastating.'
The Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces will provide advice on issues of safety and welfare in the arts and entertainment sector. On pay, it will refer matters to relevant authorities. It will develop codes of conduct and resources for the sector. It will help set a higher standard. It will help ensure that artists and arts workers feel secure at work and that they are fairly treated. The government are establishing the centre because we recognise that the work of creative Australians matters and that they deserve to feel safe, no matter where that workplace is. The centre will provide funding to Support Act, to provide mental health services for those working in the music industry.
As Special Envoy for the Arts, I was tasked with assisting and consulting the arts community in preparation for Australia's new national cultural policy, Revive. One of the messages I heard time and time again from the whole industry was that they needed a new body to provide strategic leadership, particularly for Australian music. We listened to that message, so this bill provides for the creation of Music Australia, within Creative Australia, from 1 July this year.
Music Australia will bring the major stakeholders, both artists and industry representatives, around one table. It will grow the market for contemporary Australian music. It will look at increasing the development of original music through investment in artistic creation. It'll deliver songwriting and recording initiatives in schools. It'll develop new strategic partnerships within and beyond the music sector, including to undertake research and data collection around key issues such as festivals and venues. It'll provide ongoing support for Sounds Australia, Australia's export music market development initiative. It'll support industry professionals to learn business and management skills this is something that's come up time and time again in inquiries I've done. It'll provide central coordination around access to live music venues for bands and solo artists and develop new co-investment agreements with states, territories and the industry to deliver national sector-wide priorities. It'll create community music hubs in high-density living areas.
Music Australia has a big task, and I want to thank all of the individual musicians, music producers and
industry organisations whose input has shaped Music Australia. I particularly want to thank the Association of Artist Managers, the Australian Festival Association, the Australian Guild of Screen Composers, the Australian Independent Record Labels Association, the Australian Live Music Business Council, the Australian Music Centre, the Australian Music Industry Network, the Australasian Music Publishers' Association, APRA AMCOS, ARIA, PPCA, CrewCare, the Live Music Office, Live Performance Australia, the Music Producer and Engineers Guild, the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Music Office, OneMusic, Sounds Australia, Support Act, and The Push.
The third element of this bill is to transfer the functions of Creative Partnerships Australia to Creative Australia. The state has a responsibility to nurture creative endeavour, but without diminishing the role of government. We do want to encourage philanthropic support for the arts. The transfer of Creative Partnerships Australia will leverage the Australia Council's expertise and bring together arts philanthropy and arts funding within the one entity. This will create synergies between public and private partnerships, as well as government and philanthropic investment. Through this legislation, Creative Australia will assume responsibility to assist Australian artists and arts organisations to attract and maintain support from donors and businesses, diversifying their sources of revenue, and it will encourage and celebrate innovation and excellence in giving to, and partnerships with, the arts and cultural sector.
The measures contained within this bill are just the first steps in the delivery of Australia's new national cultural policy, Revive. Another new significant measure is the restoration of the $199 million in funding to the Australia Council. This funding will mean more support across all art forms, including underfunded areas like youth arts, small to medium-sized organisations and independent artists. The policy's objective is that there's a place for every story and a story for every place. This has simply not been possible with the arts sector living on basic rations, as it has been for nearly the last decade. The best, boldest and most powerful creative work is not produced by an arts sector in survival mode. This uplift will reverse the brutal Brandis cuts that devastated the arts community and came without any warning or consultation. The Brandis cuts hit individual artists and the small to medium sector particularly hard. These organisations are essential to the health of the arts ecosystem, but many simply don't survive. The Community Arts Network in WA commented:
We have operated in WA for 30 years and have witnessed, and responded to, many changes that have threatened our sector. There is nothing however that rivals the instability, upheaval and "vacuum" created by the recent withdrawal of almost $105 million from the Australia Council for the Arts.
That's what they said at the time of the Brandis cuts. The funds raided from Australia's arts funding agency were diverted to projects favoured by the minister himself. In doing this, the previous government broke the decades-long consensus that arts funding decisions should be made at arm's length from government. Unlike the previous government, this government upholds the principle that artists themselves should make the decisions about artistic merit, not politicians.
The government will listen to, and work in partnership with, Australia's arts community. In my role as Special Envoy for the Arts I have continued the conversations that the Minister for the Arts and I started in preparation for the new national cultural policy. Only last week I visited Orange and had deep conversations with a range of people about how this policy will benefit them in their regional community but also about how they have survived this last decade and what they see as their vision for the future. As the Minister for the Arts has said many times before, we recognise that arts jobs are real jobs, and I certainly saw people who are working really hard to ensure that not only is there a vibrant arts community for the Central West but that they are accessing every bit of support they can for that community. This government respects the contribution that Australia's artists and arts workers make not just to our economy but to wellbeing, our sense of identity and our connection to each other. We don't regard the work of artists as an optional extra or an indulgence. It's a fundamental element of our society that enriches and empowers every Australian every day.
There are further steps to take in the modernisation of the Australia Council. The implementation of the Australia Council reforms under the national cultural policy will be staged to allow for proper consultation across the arts sector and to ensure a smooth transition. A staged approach will enable Creative Australia to responsibly scale up and implement new functions within available resources. Subsequent legislation will create a dedicated First Nations led board within Creative Australia which will give First Nations people autonomy over decisions and investments. Writers Australia will provide direct support to the literature sector for writers and publishers to grow local and international audiences for Australian books.
A strengthened, modernised and properly funded Creative Australia will be crucial to the realisation of the ambitions of Australia's arts community. I'm going to finish with the words of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1974:
I regard this Bill as an historic development in the promotion of the arts in Australia … I believe that the formation of an independent Australia Council will inaugurate a new era of vitality and progress in the arts, that creative artists of all kinds will enjoy a new measure of security and status in the community and that the Australian people as a whole will have new and wider opportunities to participate in the arts and enjoy the emotional, spiritual and intellectual rewards which the arts alone can provide.
