$87.1m arts cuts, Australia Council takes biggest hit

The Government will slash arts funding by $87.1 million over four years, with the Australia Council taking the biggest hit.

Australia Council regularly provides funding to the music industry. In March, $1.2m in grants were awarded to artists and music companies including Vance Joy, John Watson’s Eleven, The Drones and PVT, as part of the International Pathways initiative which helps fund overseas touring. Vance Joy hit the UK Top 10 the month prior with his breakout single Riptide, with the grant allowing him to capitalise on this.

Last month, a further $400,000 of Australia Council funding was split between 11 independent record labels, as part of The Recording Initiative, which Australia Council’s Director of Music Paul Mason said will “directly support around 50 new releases by artists from around the country.” One of the labels, Future Classic, has since landed an ARIA #1 record which was, in part, funded by this grant.

Screen Australia – the major funding body for many key Australian film releases – will also take a sizeable hit. Aside from the detrimental effects this will have to the local film industry, it will also jeopardise projects such as the recent Screen Australia-funded tele-movie Never Tear Us Apart, which saw INXS’ The Very Best become the band’s first #1 in 24 years – and their longest running, with six weeks on top – also propelling a further five of the group’s albums into the ARIA Top 50, and seeing them become the first ever Australian band to hold positions #1 and #2 in the same week.