Ministerial meddling in arts funding met by sector outrage

NSW Arts Minister Don Harwin went against Create NSW recommendations and reallocated $404,000 in funding, earmarked for 11 organisations and artists, towards a single pet project.

Image via Create NSW.

A damning report by the ABC backed by documentary evidence has established that the NSW Minister for the Arts, Don Harwin, rejected independent recommendations to distribute $660,000 across 17 projects in a recent Create NSW funding round.

Harwin instead signed off on funding for only six of the 16 applications, reallocating $404,000 towards a single project, which the ABC identified as the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO).

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts