THREE MONTHS LATER: STILL NOT A DOLLAR SPENT ON THE ARTS

It’s three months since the Morrison Government finally announced emergency support for the arts and entertainment sector - but they still haven’t delivered a single dollar.

Scott Morrison was there for the announcement alongside the celebrities – but as always he’s failed to deliver. He’s all photo-op and no follow-up.
 
The COVID-19 crisis began in March. Labor first called for a support package in March.

For more than three months the Government stubbornly insisted there was no problem and that a sector completely shut down by restrictions was somehow doing okay.

After more than 100 days they finally relented and announced a support package on June 25.

So where’s the money?

For much of the promised support - $90 million in concessional loans - we still don’t even have guidelines.

Businesses and workers in this struggling industry still don’t even know whether they will be eligible to apply.

While guidelines have been published for the RISE grants component of the package Government officials are telling applicants they shouldn’t expect to see any money before December.

It could even be 2021 until any money actually starts flowing.

A huge number of arts and entertainment workers missed out on JobKeeper because of the way the Government designed the wage subsidy scheme.

Those workers who were able to access JobKeeper will have their payments cut next week – but they’ll have to wait months to get the targeted support they were promised.

This is a sector that employs hundreds of thousands of Australians. These are workers who are hurting and they need help.

They deserve better than this hopeless prime minister, who cares more about headlines than helping people.

FRIDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2020