Australian writing and publishing faces ‘grinding austerity’

‘When it comes to public funding, literature has long been the poor cousin of the arts,’ wrote Ben Eltham on the recently revealed Federal Budget.

It was a grim federal budget for arts and culture on Tuesday night.

With the end of the Morrison government’s pandemic stimulus program for culture, the RISE fund, there will be a rapid withdrawal of federal support for cultural production.

The arts portfolio budget line will contract by 19%, or around A$190 million, this year. A number of funding programs and cultural institutions also have their funding cut in the budget’s forward projections. There are cuts to programs for regional arts, community broadcasting, contemporary music, Screen Australia and the National Library of Australia.

Unlock Padlock Icon

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

The Conversation Australia and New Zealand is a unique collaboration between academics and journalists that in just 10 years has become the world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis.