How big is the arts and entertainment sector?  New Arts Minister Tony Burke can’t seem to get his story straight.

Does the arts and entertainment sector generate $111 billion in economic activity and have more than 600,000 people working in it?

This is what recently appointed Commonwealth Arts Minister Tony Burke has said many times.

In a 7 May 2020 media release he referred to the ‘arts and entertainment industry’ and said it was ‘a $111 billion’ industry.

In a 7 October 2020 media release he referred to ‘arts and entertainment workers’ and to “this $111 billion industry” and “its 600,000 workers.”

He had similar values in May 2020 and June 2020, as did Virginia Trioli. 

Where do these figures come from?

The Commonwealth’s Government’s Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR) has issued several reports estimating the size of the ‘cultural and creative sector.’

A report by BCARR found that the size of the cultural and creative sector was $111 billion in 2016. BCARR updated the estimate for 2018 to around $116 billion.

A BCARR report in 2020 found that about 645,000 people worked in the ‘cultural and creative sector.’ 

These are evidently the sources for Mr Burke’s statements about the size of the arts and entertainment industry.

But then along came a 2021 BCARR report, which found that the total amount of COVID specific support provided to the cultural and creative sector was $10.7 billion, including $8 billion in JobKeeper payments. 

This report made Mr Burke cross.  It contradicted his repeated claims that arts and entertainment workers had largely missed out on JobKeeper. It also validated the estimate I had previously made, as Commonwealth Arts Minister, that  between $4 and $10 billion in support would go to the cultural and creative sectors (and indeed showed my estimate was not just correct but in fact slightly conservative).  Mr Burke and the MEAA Union had regularly criticised this estimate, again because it contradicted his repeated claims.

So Mr Burke attacked the report – telling Parliament in October 2021 that it was “dead wrong”to say there had been $10.7 billion of support to the creative sector, because the calculation included payments to sectors like clothing and footwear retailing and architectural services.

Disappointingly, Mr Burke repeated this attack on Q&A last night, saying:

“Yeah, there’s a bit of word play here. The term “cultural and creative sector” includes people who work in clothing retail. So when we’re talking about cultural and creative sector, that ABS section includes everybody who’s working in checkouts at Best&Less as though we’re now talking about artists. It includes people who work at the zoo. It’s a definition of statistics as broad as possible to try to claim that JobKeeper reached further in the arts sector than it actually did.”

The definition of the ‘creative and cultural sector’ was developed by the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in the publication Cultural and Creative Activity Satellite Accounts, Experimental, 2008-09. Appendix 1 of that publication lists 43 ‘industry classes’ which the ABS includes in the cultural and creative sector - such as newspaper publishing; magazine and other periodical publishing; motion picture and video production; music publishing; radio broadcasting; free to air television broadcasting; museum operation; performing arts operation; creative artists, musicians, writers and performers; and performing arts venue operation.

Estimates of the size of this sector prepared by the ABS and by BCARR include activity in all 43 industry classes. This is how the estimate of $111 billion, frequently used by Mr Burke, is derived.

Mr Burke cannot have it both ways. If he uses the figure of $111 billion as indicator of the size of the ‘arts and entertainment industry’, he needs to recognise that this is based on activity across all 43 industry classes – including the ones he says should not be included such as clothing retailing and footwear retailing.  If Mr Burke stands by his repeated claims that this is a $111 billion sector, then he must accept that there was $10.7 billion of assistance provided to the sector.

But if Mr Burke now says that the cultural and creative sector does not include all 43 industry classes which the Australian Bureau of Statistics has defined it to include, he needs to explain why he has repeatedly said it is a $111 billion sector – and why he is right and the Australian Bureau of Statistics is wrong.