New data from Hnry – Australasia’s digital accounting service for the self-employed – reveals freelance creatives are doing it particularly tough, citing poor financial performance and security, as inflation and cost of living concerns continue to prevail.
Freelance creatives, a cohort that includes writers, designers, photographers and marketing consultants, are anxious, despite the Government’s multimillion-dollar investment into the creative sector last year, as many businesses continue to economise and prioritise creative work in-house.
Thuy On is the Reviews and Literary Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the Books Editor of The Big Issue for 8 years and a former Melbourne theatre critic correspondent for The Australian.
She has three collections of poetry published by the University of Western Australian Press (UWAP): Turbulence (2020), Decadence (2022) and Essence (2025).
Threads: @thuy_on123 Instagram: poemsbythuy
