George Brandis on Australia Council’s “iron wall” funding

Attorney General and Arts Minister George Brandis maintained he set up an alternate arts funding process in last week’s Federal Budget because of “a perception that the Australia Council is an iron wall that you are either inside or outside.”

The Minister was speaking to Michael Cathcart on ABC Radio National's Books and Arts Daily show.

Brandis was slammed by some arts groups after the Budget, when he removed some of Australia Council’s initiatives and cut its annual appropriations by $104.8 million over four years. This was to pay for the National Programme for Excellence in the Arts that he set up within the Ministry of the Arts.

The arts sector said it removed the independence of arts funding decisions.

There was concern in the contemporary music sector how cuts to the Council’s budget – along with the additional demand that it find savings of $7.2 million over four years – would affect the on-going viability of initiatives covering touring, demos and marketing albums.

But Brandis insisted the National Programme was about improving "contestability" in arts funding, and making it accessible to projects outside Sydney and Melbourne, which he claimed was the case.

“The purpose of this policy is to ensure that there is contestability so that not all arts funding is delivered through the Australia Council,” he explained.

'”This is in fact a return to what was the status quo until a couple of years ago in which most arts funding was delivered through the Australia Council but there were individual programs such as Playing Australia, Visions Australia, Festivals Australia and so on delivered through the Ministry.”

He said he’d heard complaints from arts companies and arts practitioners: “particularly smaller ones, particularly ones outside Sydney and Melbourne is that they don’t feel they get a fair go in the Australia Council’s funding round.

'Now I’m not necessarily saying I agree with that. But we would be blind to pretend that there are not complaints from those who miss out, who have a perception that the Australia Council is an iron wall that you are either inside or outside.

“What I want is to give all applicants a go so that if they miss out in applications to the Australia Council – and I used the word contestability before – there is a second opportunity to apply for funding through the Ministry.”

Among points he made were that the National Programme would have an advisory panel of experts, and that the Australia Council would handle 87% (or $185 million) of arts funding in this country. He rejected the notion that funding for small experimental works would be affected.

He also dismissed fears that successful National Programme projects would be Government-favoured, as “a nonsense criticism.”

Applications for National Programme funding will start “in the coming financial year". The first year’s funding would be worth about $25 million and go to those with “popular appeal.” Details are set be unveiled in the next few weeks, hopefully including what constituted “excellence”, a question the Minister side-stepped on the radio show.

“They will be transparent, they will be independent and they will extend funding to a wider variety of applicants than is the case at the moment,” Brandis emphasised.

Meantime, a petition started by arts associations, arts workers and the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, has already attracted 3,000 signatures. It stated, “We call on the Federal Government and Minister for the Arts George Brandis to reverse all proposed cuts to the arts sector, and to cease political interference in the works of creative Australia.”

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