When we reported back in September that then freshly minted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had sacked the abominable George Brandis from the Arts Ministry, we thought it was time for jubilation and celebration.
Reality soon kicked in. Freshly sworn in Arts Minister and Communications Minister Mitch Fifield soon confirmed that he would not undo the damage that was done by his predecessor and his unpopular National Programme for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA).
The NPEA is a diversion of more than $104 million in funds from grants body the Australia Council, implemented under Joe Hockey’s watchful economic eye, which certain Labor backbenchers described as a “slush fund” and “private arts fiefdom”.
Sen Fifield unfortunately affirmed his commitment to the NPEA, which irked many in the arts community, as well as Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who recently took some time to school parliament on why that really sucks.
“Senator George Brandis broke something that didn’t need fixing,” Sen Ludlam declares in the clip below. “The alternative plan is to have not established this $100 million vanity project which has been condemned from one end of the country to another.”
“I’ve been to a lot of senate inquiries in my brief time in this place and I have never seen, without exception, the degree of unanimity of representation from one end of this country to another.”
As Sen Ludlam explains, whether you ask “contemporary performing arts companies, dance companies, theatre companies, the local music industry, visual artists and designers, [or] writers” the NPEA is “uniformly despised”.
Senator Scott Ludlam explains the missed opportunity that Senator Fifield had to repair the damage reaped by George Brandis
Posted by SLAM (Save Live Australia's Music) onMonday, November 23, 2015
