News

RISE’s last hurrah a rare budget positive

Other than a final $20M for RISE, there's little for the sector to celebrate in the 2022 Federal Budget.

30 Mar 2022

Richard Watts

All Arts

The arts budget for 2022 is small change compared to the Budget as a whole. Image: Shutterstock.

A final $20 million round of Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) funding, announced last Friday, is one of the few positives for the arts sector in the Morrison Government’s 2022-2023 Federal Budget.

Handed down in Canberra last night, the Budget was repeatedly described as an ‘act of political desperation’ by Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers this morning and is being widely reported as an attempt to bribe the electorate in the lead-up to the forthcoming Federal election, the date for which has yet to be announced.

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Richard Watts

Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts