TRANSCRIPT - DOORSTOP INTERVIEW - NATIONAL CULTURAL POLICY

TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP – LINDFIELD, SYDNEY

30 January 2023

 

E&OE

 

Subject/s: National Cultural Policy, Coalition’s track record on arts funding

 

PAUL FLETCHER: 

I just want to make a few comments about Labor’s National Cultural Policy. We’ve been hearing about Labor’s National Cultural Policy for eight months. Lot of hype. Lot of expectations built up. Now that it’s come out, we can see there’s not much new and there’s not much new money.  

A fair bit of what is in the National Cultural Policy is directions that the previous Morrison Government was perusing when it came to the arts. For example, the 30% offset for digital games, that make good sense, but it’s a policy the Morrison Government committed to in the 2021 Budget.  

The emphasis on Indigenous art, on Australian contemporary music, we welcome that. Of course, that was work the Morrison Government was doing. Our RISE fund, some $86 million went to a whole range of projects with a contemporary music element.  

 

Now, the key question is: there is not much new money. There is some creative accounting. There’s a bit of song and dance when it comes to the numbers. Labor claims $286 million of new money over four years. In fact, it’s been reported that some $45 million of that comes from the cancellation of the Temporary Interruption Fund. When you take that out, you’re talking $240 million over four years, about $60 million a year. These are not massive numbers at all.  

 

If you compare the amount being spent here to the amount being spent under the Keating Government’s Creative Nation package in 1994 – Mr Burke keeps talking about that – if you scaled up the amount that was spent then to take account of inflation it would be $525 million today, so a lot more then Labor is committing.  

 

Indeed, if you compare it to the amount the Coalition spent on the arts during our time in the portfolio, 2019 to 2022, the total amount of new funding initiatives for the arts over those three years was $1.15 billion. That includes $400 million for the Location Incentive, it includes $220 million for RISE, it includes nearly $190 million for a range of new investments in our national collecting institutions, like the National Gallery or the National Library. 

Now there's no money at all for our national collecting institutions in this National Cultural Policy. So ultimately when we look at what's been announced here, given all the hype, there's not a lot that's new and there's not a lot of new money, so there's been a bit of song and dance. There's been a bit of creative accounting. There's been a bit of a bit of theatre, but I'd suggest that the arts sector, when they have a close look at this will realise that there's more showmanship than substance to what's being delivered in politics. It's a good principle to under promise and over deliver what we've seen from Labor with the National Cultural Policy is that they've over promised and under delivered.  

 

QUESTION:  

 

You mentioned the Coalition’s funding from 2019- 22. Many in the arts industry, though, say this announcement coming off the back of years of neglect in arts funding. Do you think that's been not a fair statement to make.  

  

FLETCHER: 

 

Well, if you look at the numbers, the numbers tell a very clear story. First, record arts funding in 2021-22 $1,070 million. That is a record matched by no government, Liberal or Labor ever, and what we've seen today certainly doesn't bring Labor up to that level of funding.

  

 If you look at the last year of the previous Labor government, 2012-13. And if you take the amount that they committed for the arts in that year, even if you scale it up for inflation. You put into 2021-22 dollars. You're talking about just over 800 million compared to over a billion from the Morrison government. So when you look at the numbers, in fact we have funded the arts very substantially. We did so for very good reason and for many of the reasons that it's spelt out in the National Cultural Policy today. The arts is vital to our national identity. It's a very important form of expression. It's a very important form of increased cultural understanding. For example, Indigenous art is enormously important so that non- Indigenous Australians can better understand Indigenous culture and so people around the world can better understand Indigenous culture. All of these are very, very important, telling Australian stories, projecting Australia to the world. These are all good reasons to support the arts, and the Coalition has always strongly supported the arts. There's a lot of myth making in this National Cultural Policy today. And a lot of Labor politicians telling each other that Labor somehow has a better track record of supporting the arts than the Coalition. The facts simply do not support that claim. 

 

QUESTION: 

 

On the streaming service regulations, will the opposition be supporting those? 

 

FLETCHER:  

 

Well, we need to see the detail. We did a lot of policy work on this issue. In fact, we released a proposed position which was that if streaming services did not spend at least 5% of their Australian revenue on Australian content then the Minister would have the power to come in and set a higher target. We did a lot of detailed work because there's a lot of question of detail in here what is Australian content? Does it have to be a story about Australia? Does it have to be set in Australia? Or is it sufficient simply that the director or the writer is Australian. So for example, when you look at the producer offset which is available for film production that was made available at the rate of 40%. To Baz Luhrmann’s Great Gatsby, now is that an Australian story. These are all the questions that need to be worked through, and when we say Australian content that we need drama? Or do we mean also quiz shows, reality television? So the fact is Labor hasn't done the detailed work. They haven't got the answers to these questions. We did the detailed work. We set out a policy which was very clear. Now it's up to Labor to do the detailed work. There's nothing here that is yet worthy of responding to.

 

QUESTION: 

 

And should the government be committing to more funding for major institutions like the National Gallery now rather than waiting for the budget. 

 

FLETCHER:  

 

It is very noticeable that in this National Cultural Policy there is not one dollar for our national collecting institutions. The National Gallery, a National Library, the National Film and Sound Archive, National Museum. Just as recently as December 2021 we announced $47 million for the National Film and Sound Archive and for the National Library for digitising items in their collection. In total, the amount of new money we provided to the national collecting institutions over three years in government was almost $190,000,000. Now Labor has produced nothing for the national collecting institutions in this Cultural Policy announced today, they've said that the national collecting institutions need to wait until the budget in May this year. Now we know for example, that funding for Trove, which is the National Library's digital platform, we provided additional funding as I mentioned in December 2021 that rolls that comes to an end, 30 June 2023, so there's a lot of uncertainty. For the National Library and for other national collecting institutions. So these are questions that Labor needs to answer. What do they have for our national political institution? Thank you very much.  

Further information: Jack Abadee 0403 440 099