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When Australia last had a national cultural policy, it lasted only months before the Labor party lost the 2013 federal election. Their new policy, launched yesterday at the Espy in St Kilda, sets out a five year vision for what arts and culture could be and mean in Australia. “Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life” said Anthony Albanese.
It is an ambitious policy. It not only looks at the arts sector and direct arts funding, but also the role of arts in education, the importance of the Respect@Work report, and Labor’s commitment to implementing the Uluru Statement from the Heart.
But the headline news for the arts sector is significant: restoring funding to the Australia Council, earmarking funds specifically for First Nations stories, contemporary music, Australian literature and games. It considers workplace norms for artists, and asks how they can be improved. It aims to stamp out fake Aboriginal art.
Jo Caust has taken a deep look at the new policy document for us. She pulls out the biggest figures and the biggest changes, which point towards a more positive future for the Australian creative industries. She has some questions about how it will all work out, but she says it is a step in the right direction.
One of the big changes flagged in the policy is the introduction of content quotas for streaming services, and Oliver Eklund has taken a look at what that could mean for Australian film and television.
The literary world has warmly greeted the policy, which recognises literature has long been underfunded. Katherine Day unpacks the changes for books and publishing, including the extension of the public lending rights scheme, which gives money to authors when books are borrowed from public libraries, to include e-books and audio books.
Another notable feature of the new suite of policies was the establishment of an official Australian poet laureate. The proposal has been greeted with enthusiasm by the literary community. As Valentina Gosetti writes, the concept of a poet laureate has a long history, but the position comes with its own particular responsibilities.
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