Our creative sector is in turmoil right now. The cost of living crisis has hit both audiences and artists hard. Festivals and live events are being cancelled at an alarming rate. Venues are closing and too many artists are struggling to make ends meet. Artistic freedom is at risk on the back of political pressure on Creative Australia to sack Khaled Sabsabi and Michael Dagostino as the Venice Biennale team, and the unregulated use of AI all across the creative industries is a threat to jobs, creativity and authenticity in art.
The arts is a $112 billion a year sector that employs over 600,000 Australians. With the right support, this could thrive and grow even further. Yet it has continued to be ignored as a sector, underfunded and attacked for political gain.
The Liberals have repeatedly politicised and attacked the arts and made massive cuts to arts funding in Australia. Meanwhile, Labor have promised a lot, but delivered little for the sector. Their cultural policy Revive, released following their successful 2022 election, sounded great on paper, but is not a fully funded plan and they have capitulated to right-wing politicians and compromised on artistic freedom.
It is clear that we need to reframe the conversation in politics about the arts and their value to Australia.
The Greens are the party of the arts and have a thorough and costed policy to help the arts thrive in 2025 and beyond. We want Australian artists and creatives to feel supported, funded and valued. Our plan ensures that more artists are paid, more venues stay open, and more audiences enjoy world-class work.
Storytelling is such an important part of social change. As a politician, that’s the business I’m in. We can’t tackle the big issues that face us as a society, as humanity, without being able to help people connect and understand. Australian audiences deserve to see themselves reflected in the art that is on our stages, screens and in our music. Big streamers like Netflix, Amazon and Disney are making massive profits off their millions of Australian subscribers; however, there are no local content quotas imposed upon them like there is for our free to air broadcasters. The Greens support the call of the screen industry to put a 20% local content quota on these streamers to ensure that Australians get to see Australian stories on their screens. These globally popular streaming services make a fortune off the subscription fees of Australians, but don’t pay tax here. Reinvesting a portion of the profit they make from Australians back into Australian made and owned content is the least they can do.
Art in our society deserves to be valued. We all depend on it and turn to it for entertainment, celebrations and relaxation. I feel so lucky and proud to live in South Australia and get to experience our world-renowned arts festivals every year. The Adelaide Fringe, WOMADelaide, Adelaide Festival, Adelaide Writers Week are all unique to my home city, among many others that visit here and other capitals. But art doesn’t only appear in festivals dedicated to it – South Australia is home to countless food and wine festivals, none of which are complete without musicians at wineries, or paintings and photographs exhibited on cellar door walls. Art boosts and enriches so many activities we do.
Our plan to put an artist in residence in every public school and library is an investment in unlocking the power of creativity and innovation for the next generation. It gives every child the opportunity to learn directly from artists and experience first-hand the value of artistic expression and creative thinking while also providing stable and meaningful work for up-and-coming artists. There are such brilliant young emerging artists here in Australia, and we need to support them into the future. My daughter has always had a passion for theatre and just this year started her Bachelor of Performing Arts. Like every young person growing up in our culturally rich nation, she deserves to choose to pursue her passion and to view a career in arts as a real option, and one that does not come at the cost of financial security.
The Greens want to give a head start to the next generation of young artists who should not have to face income instability when they’re doing honest work. Workers in the creative sector deserve proper wages and conditions like all other workers. We will pay artists properly by piloting a living wage for artists program with up to 10,000 artists being paid to pursue their arts practice, and legislate a minimum performance fee of $250 for all live performers at publicly funded events.
During the pandemic, Australians locked down in our homes turned to art – we watched television in droves, read novels, went to VR exhibitions in the world’s best museums, drew, painted, danced and sang. Musicians streamed free gigs on social media as online music festivals became commonplace. Artists rose to the occasion, despite losing their incomes, and have had little thanks since. For an industry that gives us so much, the Government continues to deny support in return, instead expecting the industry to get back on its feet alone and for free.
The Greens recognise that the arts industry is not run by artists alone. We want to support the businesses and venues that support artists. These are people and places who also took a huge hit during the pandemic and are still struggling to pick up the pieces. This election, we’ve included a Live Performance Tax Offset to our policy to incentivise venues to host local talent and platform Australian artists. This was a key ask from the music industry, and we listened. Industry modelling shows that these tax offsets would boost live performances by an expected 18% in the first year alone.
A glaring gap in Labor’s Revive policy is support for literature. They developed Writing Australia with plans to start from this July, but have not done any work on setting up this body or funding the program.
The rapid development of AI technology is moving so fast, and the government is struggling to keep up. Without regulation, AI poses an enormous threat to creative industries. Intellectual property protections are overdue to prevent AI systems from ripping off artists, writers and musicians. There is an opportunity to use AI for creative work, if done in the right way. Creative workers need to be able to give consent and be compensated for their work. Australian can lead the way on protections for AI and regulations on big tech.
The Greens have stood up for artists as workers and have fought for their freedom of expression. The recent political interference scandal at Creative Australia sent shockwaves through the entire creative industry. The Board’s capitulation to an unknown conservative Senator and the Murdoch press has shown just how important it is that we have proper funding processes that are at arm’s length from the government of the day. I was able to ask direct questions to the Creative Australia Board at Senate Estimates back in February, with their feeble answers confirming that the decision was made in great haste without proper consideration for the implications on artistic freedom in this country. I was overwhelmed by the messages of support I received from artists across the country and was encouraged to keep fighting hard to stand up for artists in Parliament, and ensure there are no further attacks on artistic freedom.
Investing $2 billion over a decade may sound like a lot of money, but when spread across festivals, live performance, youth arts and arts administration every year, it pales in comparison to the funding of other industries that Labor and the Liberals happily commit to. The Greens’ plan is fully costed by the independent Parliamentary Budget Office and we can pay for it if we properly tax big corporations and billionaires. Currently, one in three big corporations in Australia pay no tax – yet, artists struggling to make a living have to. It’s time big business paid its fair share so that everyone can benefit. Giving back $2 billion in support to an industry that already gives the Australian economy $112 billion every year provides as much economic value as it does cultural value.
It’s been three years since we finally got rid of the Morrison Government. The Greens have held the balance of power in the Senate and have used this to get many wins for Australians. This election, the polls are predicting a hung parliament. With Greens in the balance of power, we have the opportunity to push Labor to act on the things that matter – and art matters! We can use our power in federal parliament after the election to make real change for the creative industry and the talented artists who give so much to our society.
This opinion piece is part of a series looking at policies for the Federal Election 2025. This opinion piece is part of a series looking at policies for the Federal Election 2025. A comparable article from the Labor Party’s Tony Burke can be found here.
ArtsHub has also approached the Coalition for an op-ed about its arts policy; a link to that article will be added here as it is received and published.Â
