Please consider sending your thoughts on new work & Arts Funding cuts and changes to the Senate Enquiry

Just getting together my submission which you can read here
to the Senate Enquiry into the
Impact of the 2014 and 2015
Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts
which closes at midnight tonight…
and wondered if you might  like to send them your thoughts too.

What would it take for us to flood them with submissions?

*-– Even one sentence will help as, while the content matters, the sheer number of submissions will also have an impact.

Here’s some background on this issue:

—a piece (“Arts Captain’s Calls”) that I wrote about it for Arts Hub

–the list of small to medium organisations that will have their funding threatened by Arts Minister Brandis’s decision to hijack a big block of funding away from the Australia Council to a special fund administered by his office (with much less accountability and only available to organisations to apply for — no individual artists or writers; and bodies that have left-leaning attitudes or are critical of current government policies probably need not apply)

–and here’s a piece by Ben Eltham in Crikey about how the slashed arts budget will affect the wider economy.

In response, the Greens, the ALP and some cross-benchers have called for a Senate Enquiry.

At the moment the Senate enquiry’s website is only showing 91 submissions — what, only 91?

But when I rang them I was told there are heaps more but it will take a while for them to be registered on the website. So join in and let them know that we do care about new Australian writing, art, performance, literary magazines, and community organisations.

If the ‘upload submission’ button on the left hand side doesn’t work for you (because we’re all madly sending them our opinions), you can email your submission directly to them at <legcon.sen@aph.gov.au> (but must be in by midnight tonight – Friday 17th July 2015).

So even if it’s just one line to say you enjoy reading new Australian books and seeing new Australian art and are very happy to have it funded — please take a moment to send them an email.

Remember that it will be new art and writing and performance  that will be hardest hit by the cuts, so if you value innovation and experiment and new work (rather than just high cost productions of older work), please says so.

And if you value questioning and critical art and writing, and the importance of being able to produce art regardless of whether it might upset a current government… say that too and thus why funding needs to be ‘arms length’ (imagine the ‘blacklist’ at Minister Brandis’s office already!).

If you feel like writing more, check out my submission for some ideas, or here’s some suggestions:

— You could toss in some examples of work you’ve read/seen/enjoyed recently that was produced by small to medium companies or individuals that you feel has been enriching for you … (eg were you glad to have the Secret River on ABC? – That came from a book that was made possible by arms length, peer-reviewed arts funding. etc etc.)

—If you’ve found out about a book or writer from a lit or arts magazine or regular event – let them know how important that was for you. The small-scale, community based, seed culture is so important but can be so easily underestimated in its value.

— perhaps your education was enriched by Australian works on the curriculum or in the library? or by a visiting Australian artist, performer or writer

–If you are a creator, tell them a bit about your achievements and dreams and any support you have had from funding bodies, or from magazines, events, and so on. Or how it has inspired or impacted on your output, or ability to continue, in any way.

—But most of all, if you value the principle of arms-length and peer-reviewed funding, let them know!

Here are the terms of the enquiry – if you can link your comments to any of these, that would be great. (But if not, don’t worry, main thing is just to get it done and send it in.)

1. the impact of the 2014 and 2015 Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts; and
2. the suitability and appropriateness of the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts, to be administered by the Ministry for the Arts, with particular reference to:
   1. the effect on funding arrangements for:
      1. small to medium arts organisations,
      2. individual artists,
      3. young and emerging artists,
      4. the Australia Council,
      5. private sector funding of the arts, and
      6. state and territory programs of support to the arts,
   2. protection of freedom of artistic expression and prevention of political influence,
   3. access to a diversity of quality arts and cultural experiences,
   4. the funding criteria and implementation processes to be applied to the program,
   5. implications of any duplication of administration and resourcing, and
   6. any related matter.

Here’s the info about the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts (notice no provision in it for literature at all, and it’s possible for them to fund bodies without having to reveal who they gave the funds to).

And if you want an example of a submission  — here’s one sent in yesterday by writer and critic Alison Croggan (which contains some interesting facts and figures).

A huge thank you to every one who has taken the time to send in an email (here’s the address again —<legcon.sen@aph.gov.au> — or submit through the website: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Arts_Funding

Please feel free to share this post or any info here on FB or tweet it or send it to anyone you think might be interested.

Arts funding is highly competitive in Australia at the moment. There are always way more excellent and worthy applications than funding spots available. But an injection of funds at just the right time can make all the difference — to a project, and to whether as an artist or writer you continue to hang in there and produce and refine and put out new work.

Writers and artists are themselves the biggest subsidisers of the arts in Australia (in time and lost income), and the cultural sector contributes enormously to the economy, to export revenue, to tourism and to employment.

These new measures not only reduce funding to the arts (the ‘efficiency cuts’ plus a mysterious amount that has disappeared from the budgets) but also hands a crucial chunk of this diminishing budget over to a government office to administer – in a way that duplicates assessment resources, and without stringent accountability.

If you want to say something about this, today is a good time.

<legcon.sen@aph.gov.au> 

or

http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Legal_and_Constitutional_Affairs/Arts_Funding

Thanks!