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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-10 Daily Xml
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Arts and Culture Plan

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15:22): When is a plan not really a plan? When it is not funded to achieve anything. That is the scenario that artists, arts organisations and the sector as a whole now face after the overhyped and underdelivered release of the state's Arts and Culture Plan. Just like the Premier with his velvet smoking jacket and his glass of champagne, this plan looks the part—it is a slick looking document—but, just like the Premier, it does not do anything.

The Premier has been going on and on about delivering the first arts plan in 20 years. Indeed, it was an election commitment he personally made. Maybe the Premier should have adopted Labor's approach and just got on with it. Labor presided over a period of huge growth in the South Australian arts sector, working in concert with arts leaders each day and responding to the needs of the sector to grow jobs and boost participation and grow the cultural calibre of our state.

But now, after many months of thorough consultation, being made aware of the issues facing the arts sector, the government could only muster in-principle agreement with 22 recommendations, a rather reluctant and caveat-laden acceptance of another 22 and no decision on one more of those 45 recommendations. To say the Premier's plan is a let-down is a massive understatement. The feeling in the sector is that, after years of hype, this is a missed opportunity.

The government's response is clearly more conscious of avoiding any suggestion of a financial commitment rather than any articulated vision for the arts. If you do not believe me, there are more than a few others making this observation too. The chief arts writer at The Advertiser, Patrick McDonald, who I cannot say is any great flag-bearer for Labor, opened his pretty scathing editorial with these words:

The lack of tangible projects, funding decisions or organisational restructures to accompany the release of the … government's five-year Arts and Culture Plan is a letdown.

Associate Professor Jo Caust of Melbourne University wrote of the arts plan and cuts in the past year:

…despite the evidence of a sector that is struggling to make sense of cuts and reductions across the spectrum, the review has no intention of recommending changes that will address this.

George Dunford, who works for the nation's peak arts news publication, ArtsHub, wrote:

While strong on rhetoric…it's light on substance, with no new funding to implement any new initiatives.

Each of these writers also laments the foreshadowed shift of financial burden onto artists and the withdrawal of support from government. It paints a worrying picture for arts in this state.

Let us take a closer look at some of the recommendations. Several are matters of day-to-day business, obvious and sensible but certainly not visionary. Necessary measures that are supported by Labor include:

developing an annual schedule of festivals;

a venue access plan;

a ticketing system;

strengthening governance and measuring the sector;

supporting the growth of Aboriginal art and artists;

the Festival Centre use of protocols and regular meetings of users; and

a central contact point in the Premier's office for arts. One would have thought that after 18 months in government that might have been something that has been done but, of course, when you sack everyone and dissolve Arts SA I suppose it does get a little confusing.

Then there is a raft of bigger ideas which, although still not revolutionary, requires money to achieve —but there is none. They include a new concert hall in Adelaide, a new black box theatre (also for the marginal seat of Adelaide), a digitisation business, investment in regional and remote arts centres and new arts funding pools.

Very worryingly—and those members opposite who represent country areas might like to take note—the consultants specifically recommended a boost to funding for Country Arts SA, but the government responded only by saying that it will look at funding structures. That is a cause for concern. Then there are some really critical decisions that have been entirely put off, kicking the can down the road on the essential question of funding and investment.

How you can have an arts plan that does not address the biggest stress in the sector is beyond me. We will all now wait until just before the election for a revised funding and investment model. The government's focus on crowdfunding and a more entrepreneurial approach plainly spells less public funding for the arts sector. With barely anyone still working in arts policy in this government and no funding, I suppose that is all anyone can really expect from Steven Marshall.

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