The jig’s up: Australia needs to follow Ireland’s lead and pay its artists 

Ireland has just announced it will be providing 2000 of its nation’s most promising artists a weekly income of €325 (A$500) to help them produce exciting content for not just Ireland but the whole world.

This decision stands in stark contrast to the parsimony of the 12^th richest nation in the world, Australia. Instead of supporting our arts sector, the government has just brought down a horror budget where $190 million (or 19%) was stripped. 

This comes on top of a decade of cuts and neglect that has seen per capita investment drop 18.9%, artists’ incomes fall by 19%, the ABC having its annual budgets eviscerated by $783m, free arts education in schools hollowed out, and a mere 2% of Australian content on streaming services. (For the full catalogue of horrors, check out the Creativity in Crisis report written by Dr Ben Eltham and Alison Pennington.)

What the Irish government has recognised and successive Australian governments have failed to understand — or perhaps don’t care about — is that without Australian artists producing, we don’t get Australian art and culture.

Have a look around your living room. It is replete with art. On your screens, through your speakers, on your bookshelves, on your walls. The question is: in 10, 20, 50 years’ time, how much of that will be Australian? 

Right now, there is 0-4% Australian film and TV content on global streaming services, which most Australians now consume their shows through. On free-to-air, Australian-scripted content is essentially hidden — given no promotion and left to die. Broadcasters aren’t being asked by the government to pay their licence fees, which would generate a billion dollars a year to pump back into the arts. Nice for some.

In the world of literature, established authors in Australia average $4000 a year while the writers’ fund in the budget has been slashed from $8.9 million per annum to $4.9 million, a budget pool less than it was three decades ago! 

In the visual arts, as a result of COVID and floods, 75% of art galleries have closed.

Australia’s performance artists, from musicians to actors, have not been able to perform for two years, and many have not had access to JobKeeper.

A national culture cannot survive on the scraps this government throws to it. It cannot compete against a glut of cheap American cultural product that is often dumped in this country like cheap navel oranges. Australia actually has anti-dumping laws that protect agriculture. They allow us to use “countervailing measures” against them to help that industry to survive. Does this government — or any other political candidate for that matter — want the Australian creative sector to survive? 

Some “countervailing measures” the government could introduce to help the arts include applying Australian content quotas to global streaming giants like Netflix who provide 2% Australian content. That would require them to dedicate 20% of their annual $1 billion revenue generated here to finance Australian productions. A stroke of the pen; zero cost to the taxpayer. If this sounds pie in the sky, it’s not. They’re doing it in Canada, Italy, France and other parts of Europe.

Another would be to put into motion the recommendations of the cultural export strategy group, whose role it is to find markets for our cultural products. If that sounds fanciful, it’s not. They do it in the UK and Canada. If nations like Korea and the Scandinavians can carve out a global reputation, so can wealthy Australia.

We can follow the Irish lead and provide 300 creative fellowships. Recipients would be granted $85,000 per year for three years so they can hone their craft and projects. 

We can extend the RISE program by $150 million to help the arts recover. Yep, Germany provided €50 billion to help its arts sector survive.

And of course we can grow the total arts budget. Whether it’s film, literature, music, shows, or visual arts, it’s very hard for the Australia Council, or producers, or literary agents to take a chance on new and bold work when the funding pool is so shallow. Every post has to count, and it leads to risk aversion not just from the gatekeepers but the artists themselves.

We can bring about another golden age of Australian culture like we saw 50 years ago when both Liberal and Labor governments supported arts funding. We just need the political will.