Arts Party leader standing for NSW Senate

The fledgling Australian Arts Party’s leader PJ Collins is standing as an independent candidate for the Legislative Council (Senate) in the NSW state elections on March 28.

Collins said, “This Party exists to give an independent voice to the Arts in our politics, to encourage our innate creativity in every form, to build communities through celebrating our similarities and differences. If the voters of New South Wales care about a more creative, artistic and culturally rich future for this state, then I ask them to vote for me.”

The Arts Party (www.theartsparty.org) was founded last year in the spate of savage budget cuts to the arts, to push for a creative agenda. Its four core principles are to advocate for the arts, encourage creativity, build communities and invest in knowledge. It said it is not run by career politicians but wanting to work with parties from both sides of the fence to make Australia creative.

It is registered as a Federal party but still waiting to be officially registered to contest at state elections. Last month when Queensland called a snap election, it missed out on running as a party. Instead two of its members were forced to stand as independent candidates, while the Party campaigned for candidates with a pro-arts view.

Next year though, will be a different story with the Federal elections. Arts Party will be standing candidates in every state and territory. “There is a pressing need to bring fresh new committed voices to the political life of this country, and that is what we intend to achieve,” Collins said.

Australia’s creative industries contribute more than $90 billion to the Australian economy annually in turnover. It adds more than $45 billion to GDP and generates annual exports of $3.2 billion. In 2011 there were over 600,000 people working in the creative industries and over 120,000 creative businesses. Creative Industries employ 3.5% of the Australian workforce.

But the 2014 Federal Budget cut $30 million from the Australia Council arts funding body and $38 million from Screen Australia, slashed support for festivals, cancelled the digital game fund to foster start-ups, and abolished the Creative Industries Innovation Centre. It failed to address the fact that artists on an average earn $7,000 a year from their creativity forcing them to take other jobs, and that ticket prices to cultural events are escalating. It is estimated that 14% of artists have no superannuation or investments to tide them through their old age.