As controversy continues to spiral around Senator George Brandis, the Arts Minister has not exactly been engaging in the kind of practices befitting good PR. According to Artshub, Brandis recently refused to meet with a national delegation of artists protesting funding cuts to the Australia Council.
As Tone Deaf previously reported, the latest federal budget included a measure that will see $104 million diverted from the Australia Council, who act as the government’s arts funding and advisory body, to a new National Programme for Excellence in the Arts, overseen by Sen Brandis.
Tone Deaf also recently noted the impact that many in the arts industry believe the significant cuts will have on the sector. Crikey recently published a list of the 145 arts companies that have been gutted as a result of the cuts, including events such as the Queensland Music Festival.
The cuts follow a previous controversy which surfaced late last year, after Sen Brandis awarded a grant of $275,000 to for-profit classical record company Melba Recordings, despite the lack of a proper funding round or open application process to the grant which they received.
Now, as Artshub reports, Brandis refused a meeting with the more than 60 senior arts leaders and artists who travelled to Canberra last week to discuss changes to arts funding. However, he did find time to meet with representatives from major performing arts companies who will not be affected by the cuts.
The delegation, which included novelist Hannah Kent, Simeon Moran of Ilbijerri, David Pledger of Not Yet It’s Difficult, and the Australian Art Orchestra’s Peter Knight, travelled to Parliament House to meet with federal politicians, but Sen Brandis was notably absent and no representatives of the government appeared on his behalf.
The Minister later revealed during Senate Question Time that he had met with the Australian Major Performing Arts Group, or AMPAG, that day. Delegates believe the statement underscored what they view as the wedge that new government policy has driven between the major arts companies and the smaller organisations.
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The delegates instead met with Labor and the Greens MPs, including Labor’s Jacinta Collins, Andrew Giles, Tim Watts, Graham Perrett, and Melissa Parke and Scott Ludlam from the Greens. Labor’s Arts spokesperson Mark Dreyfus gave a short speech in which he committed the ALP to reversing the changes announced in May’s Budget.
“Labor believes that this change should be reversed,” said Dreyfus. “I thought that [peer review] would be a settled piece of bipartisanly-supported government policy.” Dreyfus also criticised the lack of consultation between the government and the arts sector and defended the role of the Australia Council.
While Artshub reports the meeting concluded ‘in good spirits’, with delegates pleased with the back-and-forth between the MPs and the sector, the lack of government representatives in attendance provided a worrying reminder of the challenges facing many in the arts world.
