ARTS SUPPORT A FRACTION OF WHAT’S NEEDED

It is absurd that the Morrison Government’s refusal to provide any specific relief funding to the arts sector during the coronavirus crisis has forced the Australia Council to suspend its usual funding programs to pay for urgent coronavirus crisis relief.
 
Labor makes no criticism of the Australia Council, which is having to respond to an emergency situation with no additional help from the government after enduring years of funding cuts by the Abbott-Turnbull-Morrison Government. But it should not be in this position.

The arts sector needs a specific, tailored relief package from the government, and it needs it now.

Australia’s arts sector was already fragile before the coronavirus crisis due to years of Liberal cuts and neglect. They simply have no buffer to help them ride out this crisis.

The arts sector was one of the first to be affected by this crisis, when restrictions on gatherings of 500 people or more were announced, and it could be the last to be released from restrictions.
 
Hundreds of thousands of people who work in the arts sector have been put out of work due to direct government decisions.
 
This is a sector dominated by sole traders, independents, freelancers and self-employed people – some of the most vulnerable in this crisis.
 
These are workers who work gig to gig, event to event, show to show, and festival to festival.
 
Arts organisations could close within weeks, rather than months, without more support.

In the months ahead Australia will look to its artists, entertainers and cultural institutions to help us all recover and heal from the trauma of this crisis – but right now they need our help just to survive.

We have to ask ourselves: once the crisis is over, what will Australia look like if our arts sector is gone? That’s a future Labor isn’t willing to accept.
 
THURSDAY, 26 MARCH 2020