On 3 September we held an “UnF**k The Arts” forum with creative sector workers from across film, theatre, visual arts, literature, festivals, music and more. It was invigorating and confirmed what we have been hearing – the arts are in a precarious position in Victoria and the government needs to urgently step in.
My speech from the night:
This is a room of true believers to I don’t need to convince you of the value of the arts, but I do want to start by saying that everyone deserves to have rich cultural experiences
Making and experiencing music, art, theatre, comedy, film, dance and writing is part of what human beings need to live a decent life. And even if that doesn’t do it for you on some ideological level in whatever soulless idea you have about life, the arts make economic sense:
- Creative workers make up 9% of Victoria’s total workforce
- Creative sector contributed $41.1 billion or 8.4% share of the total Victorian economy
- The arts employ more people than there are teachers in Victoria
- Generate more income than the mining sector
- And has bigger audiences than the AFL
Art is a public good, and should not be reserved for those who can afford to access it, and should not be controlled by large institutions, corporations, or the wealthy. Our governments have a responsibility to fund the arts as a public good. But right now, Victoria’s arts sector is in deep crisis.
The Government once liked to wax lyrical about Melbourne being the cultural capital of Australia. Now they don’t even mention it. Not once in 4 years, across 5 arts ministers have I ever heard the arts being mentioned in parliament. Not once.
So tonight we want to put the arts back on the agenda.
I’m no stranger to struggles in the arts – before I was in politics I was an artist, exhibiting across Australia and internationally. I was lucky to get lots of opportunities across my 15 years in the arts, but even if you’re at the top of your game, it’s hard to get by.
One of the last projects I did was to create an online register called Artslog of exploitative experiences in the arts, it recorded artists being offered work in exchange for exposure, grants and commissions being so meagre that nothing is left to the artist, arts workers expected to do more work for less pay, artist-run collectives being displaced over and over again because of rent hikes and developer greed.
But recently, things have hit rock bottom. Lots of artists and groups have come to us to tell us about how much worse things are right now: Contemporary artists, writers, producers, directors, film crew, Music Victoria Freelancers, MEAA, Organisations like the Boite, Writers Victoria, and more.
And it’s no surprise – key state funding programs for the arts has fallen as much as 35% in real terms over the past five years
Creative Enterprises was recently funding cut by more than $20m down to a mere $59m – across 4 years meaning some of our long-standing creative organisations are facing closure
- Victoria is now the second-lowest ranking of all Australian states and territories for Gov per capita expenditure on arts and culture
- We’re the only mainland state now without a Government-funded peak organisation for writers
- New South Wales and Queensland invest 4 times more than Victoria does on screen industry incentive funding
- Direct investment, content quotas for screen are so small, pipelines to projects are completely clogged
With mega corporations taking over distribution and events, local musicians face huge barriers to being heard, let alone making a living from their art. Arts workers are facing staff cuts, low wages, and short-term funding cycles. And on top of it we’re seeing widespread concerns with censorship and AI
All this is happening against a backdrop of rising costs – rent, groceries, bills, making it harder everyone to have the time and money to create and participate in art. So tonight we wanted to hear from you, across disciplines and try to move the conversation along to come up with some collective ways to elevate the arts on the political agenda.
What do the Greens think we should do?
This situation is a political choice
I want to make it clear – in a wealthy state we can absolutely afford to fund the arts.
You’ll hear a lot about state debt, yes we need to invest in housing and healthcare and education, but that does not mean we should shy away from advocating for the arts. Quite the opposite.
Budgets are about choices.
While Creative Enterprises were allocated $59 million over 4 years, this Government six times that upgrading the corporate stand at the Grand Prix. A building for lobbyists to watch Formula 1.
I sit in the chamber listening to Labor boasting about increasing the numbers of unsentenced women and children, mostly First Nations, in our prisons since it introduced our punitive new bail laws. Do you know how much it costs to lock up a kid and destroy their life? $2 million a year. Imagine if we spend that money on something positive.
We could fund First Nations support services and an artist-run space for that.
Exhibition spaces are shutting down all around us, but do you know which exhibition the government spent $30 million? The Land Forces weapons expo, an international arm trade fair.
And the Government pays a former Labor MP an $130,000 salary for a new part time role as a Defence Industry Advocate – encouraging weapons companies to expand their work in Victoria. That’s the funding that the government cut from Writers Victoria.
Budgets are about choices, and with every choice, the government shapes our collective identity.
We are no longer the cultural capital, in fact, the former premiers declared: we are the defence state. It shouldn’t be that way, and it’s on us to change it.
We can actually pay for everything we need to live a decent life – housing, healthcare, education, as well as access to nature and the arts by spending smarter, and taxing the big corporations and ultra wealthy their fair share. Property developers, big banks, gambling industry – Labor lets them off the hook because they rely on them to fund their election campaigns, but we can raise billions – fund housing, healthcare education, protect nature and resource the arts.
People flock for our creativity, our stories and our cultural life. The amount needed to sustain a strong arts sector is a tiny fraction of the state budget, yet it determines whether artists and arts workers can continue to make the work that we all enjoy.
The Greens want different choices. We have a vision for:
A living wage for artists, like they have in Ireland, giving practicing artists and arts workers a living wage and the freedom to experiment, develop and create new work. This policy would offer 2000 artists a living wage for three years to create, make mistakes, and develop their work
Increased funding and long-term grants for our small to medium arts organisations; and long-term, stable and increased funding across our arts sector including in visual art, writing, screen, theatre and music
Keep live music alive with ticket levy on international acts, increased investment to protect and grow the future of our music industry from classroom to touring, support for venues and creative precincts, and provide state insurance for live music
Protect our art spaces As well as protecting and better funding our art spaces like Schoolhouse Studios, Abbotsford Convent and the Nicholas Building planning protections to safeguard the vital infrastructure, a “Percent-for-Art” scheme on major new developments
Bring down rents, vacant property tax to cover commercial properties to encourage property owners to lease or sell underutilised properties, creating an incentive to establish studios and temporary exhibition spaces in empty premises.
To maintain artists’ autonomy, diversity, courage and authenticity, the Greens will strengthen arts policy to ensure that creative funding bodies’ decisions are at arm’s length without interference from the government. Art is inherently political. Artists should not be silenced, censored, defunded or cancelled for the peaceful expression of political opinion.
We need AI laws that stop the great AI art theft, protect First Nations cultural content and force big companies to pay creatives fairly.
These are the topline things that we think will make a critical difference but we want to hear from you and in particular what want to push for and how.
