Federal Budget: Funding blow for Australia Council

The Australia Council received a blow in last night’s Federal Budget, as its independence and programs were whittled away.

The Australia Council’s funding decisions may have often aggravated the arts and music sectors. In fact, the Music Managers Forum has long called for a new funding body that was more partial to contemporary music projects.

But at least these decisions were independent of the government of the day and whatever favours it wanted to bestow.

Senator George Brandis has not been a fan of the Council’s arms-length impartiality. In 2013, he unsuccessfully tried to introduce a clause which would allow the Arts Minister of the day to intervene in any individual decisions.

In the 2015 Budget, the Federal Government has set up a new National Programme for Excellence in the Arts which will support "endowments, international touring and strategic projects" and have an emphasis on attracting private sector support. It will be administered by the Ministry for the Arts in Senator Brandis' Attorney-General's Department.

"Arts funding has until now been limited almost exclusively to projects favoured by the Australia Council,'' a statement from Brandis' office said.

"The National Programme for Excellence in the Arts will make funding available to a wider range of arts companies and arts practitioners, while at the same time respecting the preferences and tastes of Australia's audiences. The [program] will allow for a truly national approach to arts funding."

The Programme will be funded by stripping the Australia Council of $104.7 million. The Council also has to find $7.2 million in efficiency savings over four years. This accounts for a drop of 13% from its annual budget of $230 million. This year alone, it faces a 16% cut of $29 million.

Under changes, the Ministry of Arts will now take over from the Australia Council such programs as Visions of Australia and Festivals Australia. The Major Festivals Initiative will also be transferred and funding doubled to $1.5 million. The Australia Council is also losing the $5.3 million (over three years) private-sector-matched funding program.

These were previously with the Arts Ministry until transferred to the Council by the Labor Government as part of its Creative Australia policy.

The Government has gone out of its way to insist that the Arts Council “will continue to be the principal arts funding body, providing funding to artists and arts organisations.'' It would distribute about $185m to artists and organisations each year. “There will be no reduction in the Australia Council’s funding to the 29 major performing arts companies as a result of this initiative.”

According to the Arts Ministry, this transfer of programs out of the Council will “[ensure] that government support is available for a broader range of arts and cultural activities."

But details on the new Programme do not say if its funding decisions will be peer-reviewed, and how taking over those initiatives will better the outcome for recipients. As it is, response from the arts sector has been of outrage, and anger at how the Council can be expected to continue to do its job after savage budget cuts.

Labor’s Arts spokesman Mark Dreyfus warned, “These changes to arts funding will have serious implications for the Australia Council and for arts organisations right across Australia.”

The other bad news, as was expected, is that Australian consumers will from July 2017 be paying probably 10% more – raising an estimated $150 million in its first year and $200 million from its second year onwards for the Government – for digital music (downloads and streaming), movies, games and apps from overseas companies through the closing of its “digital tax loophole”.

This would be an advantage for Australian digital content offering companies like Presto and Stan, which have to pay GST unlike their overseas rivals. Apple’s iTunes and Google’s Play Store already charge Australian consumers GST.

But consumer groups and others have slammed the rise in online content fees as impacting impact low-income consumers and wondering if there’d be a drift by consumers back to piracy sites.

Funding for Screen Australia, which supports new Australian films and provides work for music composers, will be cut by $3.6 million over four years.

The Budget is a $5.5 billion stimulation of small businesses, which could be of benefit to companies in the music industry.