AMPAG in the Media

Serve the arts parties right

MICHAEL Kantor, the outgoing artistic director of the Malthouse Theatre, says that given the lamentable performance of politicians during this federal election campaign it's hard to single out the arts as a poorly served constituency. ''Because everything has been poorly served,'' says Kantor. But still, he says, it's hard not to feel hard done by given the piecemeal policies put forward by the major parties. ''None of them speak to a vision of how the arts are part of Australian culture.''

The executive director of the Australian Major Performing Arts Group (AMPAG), Sue Donnelly, who lobbies on behalf of 28 of the country's subsidised live-performance companies including Melbourne's Malthouse, says the arts aren't being poorly served, they aren't being served at all. ''They are at an all-time low at the moment,'' Donnelly says of the arts' political clout.

But talk to Richard Moore, a former director of the Melbourne International Film Festival and the new ''head of screen culture'' at Screen Queensland and, while he agrees the arts have barely surfaced in this campaign, he says this is a ''disturbing'' reminder of the ''arts industry's inability to place arts on the political agenda''.

Historically the arts have hardly ever noticeably figured in a federal election campaign other than to provide the occasional celebrity endorsement and photo opportunity. But given a knife-edge election such as this is when the major parties tend to promise bits of cash in many directions, the threadbare arts promises made at this election are a galling reminder of just how low down the food chain are the arts in the political process.

''The Liberal policy is a mish-mash with no coherence at all,'' says Donnelly. And as for the ALP's arts policy ''launched'' last Sunday in Melbourne (though someone forgot to tell the media), she says Arts Minister Peter Garrett's ''main thrust'' of a national cultural policy was announced a year ago.

Donnelly says the ALP's promise to provide an extra $10 million to develop new works, presentations and fellowships, was welcome but ''a drop in the bucket''. Garrett himself boasts the creative industries add $30 billion to gross domestic product but AMPAG estimates that arts funding amounts to less than 1 per cent of that figure.

''When will they realise that for a little bit of investment you get a lot of return?'' asks Donnelly, arguing that the arts is one of the most responsibly cost-conscious industries in the nation with its workers regrettably among the lowest paid.

AMPAG has been lobbying for a range of initiatives including more funds for new work, and for national and international touring. The ALP, the Coalition and the Greens have all looked at some of these issues to a limited extent.

But Donnelly argues that more funds are needed now, particularly given that the arts did not get to share in any of the stimulus largesse provided by the Rudd government during the global economic crisis.

The ALP has promised to fund various touring programs through the Australia Council, rather than funnel them through the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. Donnelly says this may produce administrative streamlining but wonders how much of those funds will be squeezed because of the Australia Council's efficiency dividend needs.

The Coalition's big-ticket $60 million pledge of a temporary film production fund to boost investment in local films has been welcomed by the Screen Producers' Association of Australia, though Richard Moore argues that a bigger picture solution is needed to resolve the problem of declining audiences for Australian films.

While there is widespread complaint in the arts industry about a lack of vision from our political leaders, the reason they are feeling it keenly may be because of the lack of passionate advocates for the arts within the ALP and the Coalition whose respective leaders, Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott, have shown little interest in the arts. ''I know it's not for lack of trying,'' says Michael Kantor of Arts Minister Peter Garrett's attempts to persuade cabinet of the arts' importance. But Donnelly is less generous of the former Midnight Oil front man's political performance. ''I think people had higher hopes than he has delivered,'' she says.

Garrett's opposition counterpart, Steven Ciobo, so far tends to elicit the response ''Steven who?'' But Donnelly and Kantor say there is a more positive response within the industry to some Greens' arts policies, particularly its promise of copyright reform and the working on selected arts projects as satisfying social security requirements.

Raymond Gill
The Age
August 20, 2010