tag:theconversation.com,2011:/id/topics/tony-burke-3804/articlesTony Burke – The Conversation2023-08-31T20:00:11Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2080212023-08-31T20:00:11Z2023-08-31T20:00:11ZUnder-counting, a gendered industry, and precarious work: the challenges facing Creative Australia in supporting visual artists<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540941/original/file-20230803-21-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C14%2C4909%2C4843&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Earl Wilcox/Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>When Arts Minister Tony Burke launched the bill introducing Creative Australia, the new organisation at the heart of the Revive Cultural Policy, he did so with <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22chamber%2Fhansardr%2F26698%2F0005%22">a bold statement</a>:</p>
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<p>Creative Australia recognises that artists and creatives throughout our great landscape, from metropolitan cities to the red desert, are workers. In exchange for what they give us, they should have safe workplaces and be remunerated fairly.</p>
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<p>In 2022, we surveyed 702 visual and craft artists and arts workers, making this the largest single scholarly survey of this cohort in Australia to date. We were interested to find out the ways artists combined income from various sources, within and beyond their art practice. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.visualartswork.net.au/">Our new research</a> identifies three key areas that need to be addressed to ensure fair remuneration for all visual and craft artists. We need to acknowledge the likely under-counting of the number of artists in Australia, the gendered nature of this population, and the complex ways artists earn an income.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<h2>Counting the artists</h2>
<p>It is impossible to provide a single estimate of the number of visual and craft artists in Australia as different surveys use different definitions of “artist”.</p>
<p>According to the 2021 ABS census, there are 6,793 <a href="http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/censushome.nsf/home/tablebuilder?opendocument&navpos=240.">visual art and craft professionals in Australia</a>, 64% of whom identified as female. </p>
<p>But the criteria used to count being an artist as a profession in the census require art to be the “<a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-working-conditions/income-and-work-census/2021#key-questions-in-2021-census">main job</a>” of the respondent in the week before the census. This leads to an under-counting of artists, as most visual art and craft artists support themselves through other work – either related to their artwork, such as in academia or in arts management, or in an entirely different field. As such, they would not be identified in the census as visual or craft artists.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman weaving." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540942/original/file-20230803-25-d2dnt3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Many artists are excluded from the census, because art making is not their ‘main work’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ALAN DE LA CRUZ/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>A more accurate estimate is likely provided by the ABS Survey of Cultural Participation. In this survey, <a href="https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/cultural-and-creative-activities/latest-release">106,000 Australians</a> reported earning some income from a visual art activity, and 94,800 from a craft activity, in the 2021–22 financial year. These figures cannot be totalled as those engaged in both activities were counted separately. Nonetheless, at a minimum the survey identifies an additional 100,000 visual and craft artists not captured within the census definition. </p>
<p>If all artists are to be remunerated fairly, it is critical Creative Australia ensures support mechanisms extend to the around 100,000 visual and craft artists for whom art making is not their primary occupation. </p>
<h2>The gendered nature of the industry</h2>
<p>In our survey, we did not impose any requirements that respondents devote a certain amount of time to their art making, nor earn a particular level of income. Instead, we left it open to respondents to self-identify as an artist. </p>
<p>This inclusive definition produced a much higher proportion of female artists than the census, with 73% identifying as female. This aligns with <a href="https://sheila.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/2019_COUNTESS_REPORT_FINAL.pdf">other estimates</a> of the gender breakdown of the industry. The ABS Cultural Participation Survey estimated 67% of people who earned income from visual art activity and 79% who derived income from craft activity were female.</p>
<p>In our survey, 3.1% of respondents identified as non-binary, and so we were not able to collect enough data for further analysis of this cohort.</p>
<p>We found a distinctive experience of female artists compared to their male counterparts, suggesting policy responses need to recognise the gendered nature of art making. </p>
<p>Female artists in our survey reported an average annual income of A$8,507 from their arts practice, compared to the annual income reported by male artists of $22,906. </p>
<p>While earning 37% of male artists’ earnings, women spent 76% of the time male artists spend on their practice (29 hours compared with 38 hours per week). </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A man paints." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540944/original/file-20230803-29-ypizoo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">On average, male artists earn more than female artists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Antonio Francisco/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>So, male artists earn more from their art practice than female artists, and proportionately even more when accounting for the hours spent on their practice. </p>
<p>Our research suggests the shadow cohort of visual and craft artists who do not show up in census results are predominantly female. The gendered nature of the visual arts and craft sector must be front of mind in the design of remuneration policies for artists undertaken by Creative Australia.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-gender-pay-gap-is-wider-in-the-arts-than-in-other-industries-87080">The gender pay gap is wider in the arts than in other industries</a>
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<h2>How artists earn a living</h2>
<p>For many artists, the practice of visual art and craft making does not readily align with traditional concepts of an employee and is not attached to a single workplace. </p>
<p>In our survey, only 30% of respondents spent 100% of their working time as an artist, with 60% receiving at least some income from non-artistic work within and outside the arts sector.</p>
<p>The life of an artist is more likely to look like a combination of multiple part-time, casual and contract jobs, with occasional grant income and artwork sales. </p>
<p>Many visual art and craft artists conduct their practice from their home and operate as a sole trader. For many, outside work is the only way they can support their art practice. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three people in an office" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/540943/original/file-20230803-29-nsdn8q.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Most artists support themselves with a job other than art making.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Arlington Research/Unsplash</span></span>
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<p>Achieving the goal of remunerating artists fairly is not just about payment for art making. It is also about the other work these artists must undertake to make a living, much of which consists of part-time employment elsewhere in the arts and cultural sector. </p>
<p>Any policy interventions from Creative Australia to support visual and craft artists’ incomes will need to take a sector-wide approach.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/male-artists-dominate-galleries-our-research-explored-if-its-because-women-dont-paint-very-well-or-just-discrimination-189221">Male artists dominate galleries. Our research explored if it’s because ‘women don’t paint very well’ – or just discrimination</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/208021/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grace McQuilten receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project 'Ambitious & Fair: Strategies for a Sustainable Visual Arts Sector.'</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chloë Powell receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project 'Ambitious & Fair: Strategies for a Sustainable Visual Arts Sector.'</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenny Lye receives funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project Ambitious and Fair: strategies for a sustainable arts sector (LP200100054)"</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kate MacNeill receives funding from the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project Ambitious and Fair: strategies for a sustainable arts sector (LP200100054)</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marnie Badham receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the Linkage Project 'Ambitious & Fair: Strategies for a Sustainable Visual Arts Sector.' She is affiliated with Res Artis. </span></em></p>Any policy interventions from Creative Australia to support visual and craft artists’ incomes will need to take a sector-wide approach.Grace McQuilten, Associate professor, RMIT UniversityChloë Powell, Research Assistant, RMIT UniversityJenny Lye, Associate Professor/Reader in Economics, The University of MelbourneKate MacNeill, Associate Dean, Faculty of Arts, The University of MelbourneMarnie Badham, Associate Professor, School of Art, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2125412023-08-30T12:33:58Z2023-08-30T12:33:58ZGig economy workers set for new protections in Albanese government’s legislation introduced next week<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545462/original/file-20230830-27-ro8iwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=20%2C10%2C3366%2C1990&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A suite of protections for gig workers will be contained in legislation to be introduced into parliament by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke next week.</p>
<p>The government argues the changes balance protections with work flexibility. The new regime will begin from July 1. </p>
<p>The legislation, called the Closing Loopholes Bill, will also include measures on rights for casual workers, stopping wage theft, and preventing companies with enterprise agreements using labour hire to undercut wages. </p>
<p>Business has been campaigning strongly against the new round of industrial relations legislation. </p>
<p>Under the changes, the Fair Work Commission will set minimum standards for “employee-like workers” in the gig economy. These are people who work through a digital labour platform, notably in food delivery, ride share and the care economy. </p>
<p>Businesses will be able to apply to the commission for minimum standards orders tailored to the work performed under them.</p>
<p>The terms the commission will be able to consider for an order include payment, record keeping and insurance. But it would not set minimum standards on overtime rates, rostering, or terms that would change how a worker is engaged. </p>
<p>These workers will also be protected from being unfairly removed from digital labour platforms, and they will be able to ask the commission to resolve disputes. </p>
<p>The government says the changes will allow the commission to respond flexibly to these new, quickly evolving business models.</p>
<p>It stresses they will not affect independent contractors, such as skilled tradespeople, who have a high-degree of autonomy over their work.
Rather, they are aimed at protecting workers who are neither “employees” nor small businesses.</p>
<p>Gig workers are estimated to number in the hundreds of thousands. </p>
<p>Burke said at least 13 gig workers have died on the roads in the last few years..
“We know there is a direct link between low rate of pay and safety: it leads to a situation where workers take risks so they can get more work because they’re struggling to make ends meet,” he said.</p>
<p>“We can’t continue to have a situation where the 21st century technology of the gig platforms comes with 19th century conditions.</p>
<p>"At the moment if you’re classed as an employee you have a whole lot of rights such as sick leave, annual leave and minimum rates of pay. If not, all those rights fall off a cliff. What we want to do is turn the cliff into a ramp.</p>
<p>"We’re not trying to turn people into employees when they don’t want to be employees. But just because someone is working in the gig economy shouldn’t mean that they end up being paid less than they would if they’d been an employee.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212541/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A suite of protections for gig workers will be contained in legislation to be introduced into parliament next week, and will also include measures on rights for casual workers and stopping wage theftMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2105472023-07-27T04:14:00Z2023-07-27T04:14:00ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: ACCI Head Andrew McKellar on industrial relations and boosting Australia’s productivity<p>Australia’s inflation moderated somewhat this week. But in economic terms, there will be more tough months ahead for households and for businesses.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the relationship between business and the Albanese government is somewhat scratchy. From the point of view of business, the Government is delivering to the unions. Business is particularly critical of the Government’s industrial relations changes those already made and those to come.</p>
<p>In this weeks podcast, our guest is Andrew McKellar, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI). He joins us to give a business take on the economy, issues concerning business and relations with the Albanese Government.</p>
<p>ACCI describes itself as Australia’s largest and most representative business network, saying it covers businesses “of all shapes and sizes”.</p>
<p>With the news that Australia is finally seeing inflation fall, McKellar believes that further interest rate rises could do more harm to the economy than good. </p>
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<p>it’s not clear that further interest rate increases at this point in time are really going to help. In fact, they could risk going the other way. </p>
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<p>This week workplace relations minister Tony Burke announced new changes to casual employment laws, to make it easier for casuals to become permanent employees. Business has reacted sharply. McKellar says:</p>
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<p>Firstly, there is already a pathway for conversion from casual to permanent employment, if that’s what suits the employee and what suits the business. We think there is an issue around the change in the test to that, and particularly the uncertainty that that can create for smaller businesses. </p>
<p>So whether it be on labour hire, service, contracting, the ability for companies, for employers to engage labour in those circumstances […] There’s a broad range of concerns that business has and we’re obviously trying to work through those issues with government behind the scenes.</p>
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<p>Treasurer Jim Chalmers announced the new head of the Productivity Commission this week, appointing Chris Barrett from the Victorian Department of Finance and Treasury to the role. Australia’s productivity growth per annum is at its worst in 60 years, and McKellar believes Barrett has a mammoth task ahead of him: </p>
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<p>I think we’ve seen a period where there hasn’t been a strong reform agenda. This government has to make a choice. It can make a difference. When you look back at some of the positive things that have been done by governments of either persuasion in the past, whether it be Hawke and Keating, whether it be Howard and Costello, then I think having that strong impartial advice, looking at taking on some of those challenges, making some unpopular decisions at times, but trying to build a consensus around what will drive productivity growth [and] that’s sorely needed in Australian public policy.</p>
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<p>With the sweeping industrial relations changes being implemented by the government, McKellar says business, big and small, needs to be measured: </p>
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<p>We don’t want to diminish our credibility as business advocates by ‘overegging the omelette’ - and we’ve got to be careful on that point.</p>
<p>But where we see risks and where we see things that are taking us potentially in the wrong direction on policy, then I think it’s quite legitimate to have that debate in a pretty robust way, and I don’t think anyone’s shying away from that.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In this podcast, our guest is Andrew McKellar, CEO of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He joins us to give a business take on the economy and relations with the Albanese GovernmentMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2102592023-07-23T12:30:39Z2023-07-23T12:30:39ZAlbanese government to make it easier for casuals to become permanent employees<p>Casual workers will be given a new path to becoming permanent, with the security that brings, in industrial relations reforms Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke will introduce later this year. </p>
<p>Under the change, promised in Labor’s election campaign, there will be a new definition of when an employee can be classified as “casual”. </p>
<p>Eligible workers could then apply to change their status, which would mean they received benefits such as paid leave but lost the extra loading casuals have in lieu of entitlements. </p>
<p>Burke says the measure will potentially help more than 850,000 casuals who have regular work arrangements. </p>
<p>But he is anxious to reassure employers, as well as to stress that not all casuals will want to go down this path. </p>
<p>Business has been resisting a change to the arrangements affecting casuals, and in general criticising the government for a pro-union industrial relations agenda. </p>
<p>Burke, who will give more detail of his IR plan in a Monday speech to The Sydney Institute, said the government was keeping “much of the existing framework that unions and business groups agree should not change”. </p>
<p>This included current processes to offer eligible employees permanent work after a year.</p>
<p>The new measure will be prospective – people won’t be entitled to make claims for pay relating to past work. </p>
<p>Burke said many casuals, for example students, who worked irregularly and wanted the current extra loading, would not want to make the transition.</p>
<p>“No casual will be forced to lose their loading. No casual will be forced to become a permanent employee,” he said.</p>
<p>“But for those who desperately want security - and are being rostered as though they were permanent - for the first time job security will be in sight,” Burke said.</p>
<p>“There are casual workers who are trying to support households. They’re being used as though they’re permanent workers and the employer is double dipping - taking all the advantages of a reliable workforce and not providing any of the job security in return,” Burke said. “That loophole needs to be closed.”</p>
<p>Burke’s reassurances follow preemptive criticism from business. </p>
<p>Writing in the Weekend Australian Innes Willox, chief executive of the Australian Industry Group, said: “The kinds of changes potentially under contemplation would inevitably increase business costs and risks, reduce investment and reduce employment”.</p>
<p>“Since it was elected, the government has implemented a series of unbalanced industrial relations changes that will do nothing to boost productivity or assist businesses to grow and increase employment. The changes so far have only looked to deliver on a wide range of longstanding union claims. Enough is enough. </p>
<p>"Current casual employment arrangements need to be preserved to prevent Australian businesses and their workforces losing the choices and agility they need to prosper.”</p>
<p>But ACTU secretary Sally McManus said in a statement in May: “Too many casuals are casual in name only. Too many jobs that are actually permanent jobs have been made casual, denying workers both pay and rights. </p>
<p>"The majority of casuals work regular hours, week in, week out and have been in their job for more than a year. Changes made by the Morrison Coalition Government in early 2021 made this erosion of job security completely lawful.</p>
<p>"Big business has used loopholes in our work laws to make what should be secure jobs into casualised, insecure work. It is a way of driving down wages and putting all the stress onto workers.”</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210259/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Under the change, promised in Labor’s election campaign, there will be a new definition of when an employee can be classified as “casual”.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2050372023-05-04T12:38:45Z2023-05-04T12:38:45ZControversial ParentsNext program to be scrapped next year<p>The unpopular ParentsNext program is to be scrapped by the Albanese government from July 1 next year. </p>
<p>In the meantime, compulsory requirements for participants in the program, introduced by the Coalition government, are to be paused.</p>
<p>Abolishing ParentsNext was recommended by the government’s <a href="https://www.dss.gov.au/groups-councils-and-committees/economic-inclusion-advisory-committee#:%7E:text=In%20November%202022%2C%20the%20Government,economic%20inclusion%20and%20tackling%20disadvantage.">Economic Inclusion Advisory Committee</a> and its <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/office-women/womens-economic-equality/womens-economic-equality-taskforce">Women’s Economic Equality Taskforce</a>. </p>
<p>The Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, and the Employment Minister, Tony Burke, said women around the country had been telling the government the program “is punitive, counterproductive and causes harm”.</p>
<p>Under the program, originally conceived as an attempt to help very young and vulnerable single mothers, participants have been required to attend appointments, negotiate participation plans, and report on agreed activities. If they fail to do what is required, they can have their benefits suspended. </p>
<p>The program was rolled out for women with children under six, with the Coalition government saying it would benefit those at risk of long term welfare dependency. The plan was to assist these parents prepare for jobs by the time their children went to school. </p>
<p>The welfare sector and a recent parliamentary inquiry have criticised the program. The inquiry said it was “locked into a punitive frame and does too much harm for the good it also does”. </p>
<p>The inquiry, which was set up by Burke, found the program was “polarising”. </p>
<p>“Numerous parents we met with explained that ParentsNext has helped them to build confidence, connect with employers, and find paid work. Yet many others think it’s something close to evil and must be scrapped, describing the compliance process as re-traumatising and akin to coercive control,” the committee chair, Labor’s Julian Hill. said in his forward to the inquiry’s report. “ParentsNext is not as bad as many say, but not as great as others claim.” </p>
<p>The inquiry recommended the program be scrapped and replaced with “a supportive pre-vocational service developed via a co-design process”. It said that in the interim the present program should have its onerous elements removed. </p>
<p>Gallagher and Burke said in a statement that at the election Labor “committed to listen to women’s experiences and make decisions that make their lives better and fairer”.</p>
<p>The women’s taskforce said ParentsNext should be replaced by “a new evidence-based program co-designed with young parents, and based in principles of encouragement, support, flexibility and meeting their needs”.</p>
<p>In another measure for women, next week’s budget is set to liberalise the eligibility for the single parent payment. At present a single mother loses this when her youngest child turns eight. She then has to go on JobSeeker, which is paid at a much lower rate. The new cut off point could be when the youngest child turns 13 or 14.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205037/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, said women around the country had been telling the government the program “is punitive, counterproductive and causes harm”Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2032392023-04-04T12:33:28Z2023-04-04T12:33:28ZMay budget to boost cultural and historical institutions with $535m four-year injection<p>Next month’s budget will provide $535.3 million extra over four years for nine major cultural and historical institutions. </p>
<p>The funding will go to the Australian National Maritime Museum, Bundanon Trust, Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House), National Archives of Australia, National Film and Sound Archive, National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.</p>
<p>The money includes the $33 million earlier announced for the National Library’s digital archive Trove.</p>
<p>The government also promises that beyond the four years, the institutions will get indexed funding. </p>
<p>“Our institutions will be able to meet their financial obligations and invest for the future knowing they finally have a government that values them just as the Australian people do,” a statement on the funding says. </p>
<p>The government says it will “establish clear line of sight over future capital works and improvements to ensure the institutions never again fall into the state of disrepair they did over the last decade”.</p>
<p>But it has not abolished the “efficiency dividend” requirement that has been a bane of the institutions over many years. </p>
<p>Finance Minister Katy Gallagher this week defended the efficiency dividend, telling The Canberra Times it was appropriate as long as the funding was adequate. </p>
<p>“Putting a productivity efficiency component into any funding I think is a responsible part of government and making sure we keep the budget on a sustainable footing,” she said.</p>
<p>The efficiency dividend dates from the 1980s and has been again criticised by the Community and Public Sector Union, which represents staff at the institutions. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the extra funding was another example of his government having to clean up the mess left by the Coalition. </p>
<p>Arts Minister Tony Burke said the former government had left the institutions in “a shocking state of disrepair” and the funding would get them “back to where they should be – where the government delivers strong core funding and philanthropists take them to the next level”.</p>
<p>The financial squeeze has led to some institutions having to reduce staff and services and neglect some activities and maintenance. </p>
<p>The government recently appointed former ABC journalist Barrie Cassidy as chair of the Old Parliament House board. </p>
<p>This is second time around for Cassidy, a one-time staffer to Bob Hawke. He was appointed chair of the Old Parliament House advisory council at the very end of the last Labor government but resigned after the Coalition won the 2013 election. Cassidy (who was still with the ABC at the time) was pressured to go by then arts minister George Brandis.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203239/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government also promises that beyond the four years, the institutions will get indexed fundingMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2027272023-03-29T03:00:01Z2023-03-29T03:00:01ZAustralia’s cultural institutions are especially vulnerable to efficiency dividends: looking back at 35 years of cuts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518059/original/file-20230328-29-56c55m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C0%2C5919%2C3937&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In January the Albanese government launched a new arts policy, <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place">Revive</a>. Among its measures was a commitment to exempt Australia’s seven national performing arts training organisations from the efficiency dividend.</p>
<p>The directors of Australia’s national cultural organisations in the galleries, libraries, archives and museums (GLAM) sector might well have looked on in envy, but also in hope. Revive did not deal with their problems, but Arts Minister Tony Burke does recognise they are in <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/genpdf/chamber/hansardr/26433/0175/hansard_frag.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf">deep trouble</a>. </p>
<p>Staff at the National Gallery of Australia, for example, are working in mouldy rooms and using towels and buckets to mitigate a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/a-national-disgrace-gallery-uses-buckets-as-building-falls-into-disrepair-20230327-p5cvjo.html">national disgrace</a>”. This week, Burke gave assurances the cultural institutions will receive <a href="https://www.watoday.com.au/politics/federal/budget-will-contain-some-relief-for-national-gallery-cultural-institutions-but-government-won-t-say-how-much-20230327-p5cvmx.html">increased funding</a> in the May budget, but it is not yet clear how much, or for how long.</p>
<p>And for many of the sector’s ills, the efficiency dividend is to blame.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<h2>Making cultural institutions ‘efficient’</h2>
<p>The Hawke Government introduced the efficiency dividend – an annual decrease in government organisations’ funding – in 1987, levied at 1.25% annually. </p>
<p>While there was much window-dressing about greater efficiency and value for taxpayers, the overriding aim was budget savings. State governments have also levied efficiency dividends for the same reason.</p>
<p>The efficiency dividend has undermined the cultural institutions ever since. Senior public servants considered if big government departments were taking a hit, GLAM should not be treated differently. </p>
<p>But these institutions are not like other government agencies. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The war memorial" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518062/original/file-20230328-16-25v4zp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Entry charges were briefly levied at the Australian War Memorial.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>While small and specialised – and therefore poorly placed to absorb continuing cuts – they are legally mandated to grow. But these institutions, required by law to “develop their collections”, can barely afford to preserve their existing materials. </p>
<p>The only place where economies could reasonably be made was in employment. As staff numbers and organisational capacity declined, successive governments told the agencies to find new funding sources, such as philanthropy or user charges. </p>
<p>Entry charges were previously levied at the <a href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=31405793">National Gallery</a>, and even briefly at the <a href="https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/122334513">Australian War Memorial</a>. </p>
<p>Both generated animosity among visitors, who rightly felt that, as taxpayers, they should not have to pay to see the collections maintained on their behalf.</p>
<h2>Not neglecting, strangling</h2>
<p>In the end, institutions were in the invidious position of maintaining some core functions while neglecting or abandoning others. </p>
<p>When the efficiency dividend took effect in the late 1980s, the newly established National Film and Sound Archive was forced to suspend acquisition to <a href="https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=32176885">save deteriorating records</a>. </p>
<p>By 2008 similar effects were evident across the board. Required to produce efficiencies each year, the Australian National Maritime Museum found itself cancelling some exhibitions while deferring or scaling back others. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A glass museum on Darling Harbour." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=332&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518060/original/file-20230328-28-ggo9cz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Australian National Maritime Museum was forced to cancel exhibitions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>The Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies told a <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=jcpaa/efficdiv/report.htm">parliamentary inquiry</a> staff were “racing against time” to preserve materials that would be “lost forever” in the face of staffing cuts. </p>
<p>The institute even reported the likelihood of having to “compromise” its repatriation program to adhere to the efficiency dividend in 2008, the year of the Apology. The hypocrisies involved here were boundless.</p>
<p>The agencies have often been told to do additional work, even as funding disappeared. </p>
<p>The Rudd government <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/rudd-govt-reveals-plans-for-foi-reform-20090324-983d.html">reduced the closed period</a> of most Commonwealth records from 30 years to 20 in 2010. The National Archives would have to release two years of cabinet records annually for ten years. Meanwhile, the archives was failing to meet <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-03/functional-efficiency-review-national-archives-of-australia.PDF">basic statutory obligations</a> for ensuring timely public access to open period records. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.ag.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-03/functional-efficiency-review-national-archives-of-australia.PDF">2020 review</a>, David Tune reported the timeframe for examining and clearing records was “unachievable because of resource constraints”.</p>
<p>Governments have nonetheless continued to cut funding to these institutions. The Rudd government <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/parliamentary_business/committees/house_of_representatives_committees?url=jcpaa/efficdiv/report.htm">increased the efficiency dividend</a> by 2% to a total of 3.25% for one year. In December 2015 the Turnbull government <a href="https://archive.budget.gov.au/2015-16/myefo/MYEFO_2015-16_Final.pdf">imposed another 3% hike</a> with a view to saving A$36.8 million.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-12-20/national-library-of-australia-gets-funding-for-trove-in-myefo/8136738">Emergency funding</a> was soon required to keep Trove, the National Library’s popular database, operational. That was a more sensitive issue for nervous politicians: there are Trove users in every electorate around the country and they love it passionately. But a leaky roof in the building that houses Trove, the National Library, is harder to see – even from Capital Hill.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/troves-funding-runs-out-in-july-2023-and-the-national-library-is-threatening-to-pull-the-plug-its-time-for-a-radical-overhaul-197025">Trove's funding runs out in July 2023 – and the National Library is threatening to pull the plug. It's time for a radical overhaul</a>
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<h2>Where to?</h2>
<p>In 2018 the Coalition government, supported by Labor, was able to find $500 million for <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6000852/500m-australian-war-memorial-expansion-to-honour-recent-conflicts/">massive renovations</a> at the Australian War Memorial. But it took concerted national action by <a href="https://honesthistory.net.au/wp/wp-content/uploads/SavingtheNationsMemoryBank.pdf">150 writers</a>, an intense media campaign and the treasurer’s personal intervention to secure <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-07-01/national-archives-of-australia-receives-urgent-federal-funding/100257692">$67 million in 2021</a> to save vital records at the National Archives from disintegrating before they could be digitised. </p>
<p>If the Albanese government really cares about the future of Australia’s national cultural institutions, the government will exempt them from the efficiency dividend. Revive sets a precedent in relation to performing arts institutions. The National Cultural Policy Advisory Group Burke established has <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/national-cultural-policy-advisory-group-independent-advice.pdf">advised dropping the efficiency dividend</a> for cultural institutions.</p>
<p>The unpalatable alternative is continuing the cycle of fiscal suffocation and emergency funding we have seen for decades. A government that creates emergencies for itself to solve can never be called efficient. And for citizens, there is no dividend.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/getting-more-bang-for-public-bucks-is-the-efficiency-dividend-efficient-24803">Getting more bang for public bucks: is the 'efficiency dividend' efficient?</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/202727/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Frank Bongiorno is President of the Australian Historical Association.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Joshua Black is Administrative Officer of the Australian Historical Association. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Arrow receives funding from The Australian Research Council. She is Vice-President of the Australian Historical Association. </span></em></p>Years of cost-cutting measures have left Australia’s national galleries, libraries, archives and museums in dire straits.Frank Bongiorno, Professor of History, ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australian National UniversityJoshua Black, PhD Candidate, School of History, National Centre of Biography, Australian National UniversityMichelle Arrow, Professor of History, Macquarie UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1988712023-02-08T02:07:22Z2023-02-08T02:07:22ZA story for every place, not jobs and growth: Revive reflects global trends in policy – cultural and otherwise<p>Federal Labor is engaged in urgent reform, making up for the “lost decade” under the Coalition. The Voice, industrial relations, climate change, universities, health, Asian-Pacific diplomacy, research and development are all undergoing significant policy review. We can now add the new National Cultural Policy, <a href="https://www.hawkerbritton.com/blog/2023/01/30/national-cultural-policy-revive/">dubbed Revive</a>. </p>
<p>The reference points since the launch of the policy have been Whitlam and Keating, both for their reforming energies and their love of the arts. But it is worth putting this into an international context. </p>
<p>Australia’s lack of a cultural policy was often seen as a throwback to some philistine past, provoking a toe-curling culture cringe at the thought of how this might look overseas. But the Coalition was in fact adopting a right-wing politics that began with the <a href="https://www.griffithreview.com/articles/blue-wedge/">mid-1990s US Republican Party</a>, then picked up in the United Kingdom, across the European Union and beyond.</p>
<p>If party lines in culture were string quartets versus some pop-modernism combo, the new conservative dispensation was happy to reject art. </p>
<p>In doing this they could pose as populists, setting the huddled masses of the suburbs against the metropolitan elites. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<h2>A creative nation</h2>
<p>Labor’s new cultural policy harks back to the ill-fated 2013 <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/creative-australia-national-cultural-policy-2013">Creative Australia</a> and to 1994’s fondly remembered <a href="https://theconversation.com/paul-keatings-creative-nation-a-policy-document-that-changed-us-33537">Creative Nation</a>.</p>
<p>Creative Nation set an international benchmark for a new kind of cultural policy thinking, embracing commercial popular culture alongside the arts. This combination was seized upon by UK New Labour for its creative industries <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/sda/1175/audioclip-transcript-ccut.pdf">rebranding in 1998</a>.</p>
<p>Flagging by the time Conservatives got back into power in 2010, the whole idea was briefly revived after Brexit. </p>
<p>The head of the UK Arts Council, Peter Bazalgette, got creative industries inserted into Theresa May’s 2017 industrial policy, and the British Council actively courted China as a growth non-EU market. “Getting Brexit done” and the pandemic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/jan/19/muddled-policies-putting-uks-lead-in-creative-industries-at-risk-peers-warn">put an end to all this</a>.</p>
<p>In 2013, still in the post-financial crisis doldrums, Creative Australia was a policy wonk document with little to set the blood racing. </p>
<p>Revive addresses a cultural sector that feels battered and unloved with grace and aplomb. The arts are essential to a democratic society, and they are for everyone. </p>
<p>First Nations First is the most significant new addition, marking where we have moved even in a decade. </p>
<p>There is money, not <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">transformative</a> but <a href="https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/01/31/albanese-government-arts-culture-policy/">significant</a>, and a set of new agencies. The absence of economic justification stands out, as does the way creative industries has dropped out of the big picture rhetoric. </p>
<p>A story for every place, not jobs and growth. </p>
<p>This too reflects a global trend. Jim Chalmers’ essay in <a href="https://www.themonthly.com.au/issue/2023/february/jim-chalmers/capitalism-after-crises">The Monthly</a> placed the nation squarely at the heart of a post-neoliberal world. </p>
<p>Investment in health, education and social services, along with the green transition, will require a more active, even entrepreneurial state. </p>
<p>This is of a piece with the post-pandemic centre-left, from <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/nov/06/inflation-reduction-act-climate-crisis-congress">US President Joe Biden</a> and his <a href="https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/en/french-foreign-policy/economic-diplomacy-foreign-trade/promoting-france-s-attractiveness/france-relance-recovery-plan-building-the-france-of-2030/">French counterpart Emmanuel Macron</a>, to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/18/keir-starmer-post-covid-plan-for-britain-key-points">UK Labour leader Keir Starmer</a> and the <a href="https://www.tatsachen-ueber-deutschland.de/en/germany-and-europe/europes-green-deal">German Greens</a>. </p>
<p>In Europe these “green new deals” have come with promises of greater funding for culture, other than in those with a strong right-wing contingent such as Italy, Sweden and many former Eastern bloc countries. In the austerity-headed UK <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/nov/22/arts-council-england-cuts-are-cultural-vandalism-says-juliet-stevenson">cultural funding</a> is set to be cut, while the US is <a href="https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2023/01/11/us-considers-rejoining-unesco-despite-616m-membership-debt-and-israel-palestine-controversies">talking about rejoining UNESCO</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/humanising-capitalism-chalmers-new-version-of-an-old-labor-project-198763">Humanising capitalism: Chalmers new version of an old Labor project</a>
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<h2>Facing inequalities</h2>
<p>In September 2022 UNESCO, the UN’s lead body on culture, held a <a href="https://www.unesco.org/en/mondiacult2022">cultural policy conference</a> in Mexico City. They saw a world marked by:</p>
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<p>climate change and biodiversity loss, armed conflicts, natural hazards, uncontrolled urbanisation, unsustainable development patterns, as well as the erosion of democratic societies – [leading] to an increase in poverty, inequalities in the exercise of rights and a growing divide in access to digital technologies.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is no longer the exciting, globalised marketplace in which a dynamic creative economy was going to float all boats. The new vision was “culture as a global public good” and for the UN to pursue a cultural goal in addition to the 17 <a href="https://sdgs.un.org/goals">Sustainable Development Goals</a> adopted in 2015. </p>
<p>The next steps for UNESCO are not clear. “Global public goods” can mean a commitment to a revived and robust public culture, or to the kind of state-led investment in skills, infrastructure and accessible finance that has underpinned the global creative industries policy script for two decades.</p>
<p>Revive’s visionary talk is about art and storytelling, connection to country and culture, but the rebranded Australia Council, Creative Australia, is straight out of the neoliberal playbook. </p>
<p>Creative Australia has an expanded remit to engage with the commercial and philanthropic sector, just as Chalmers sees an expanded social services delivered by ethically motivated “impact investors”. The grounds on which this enlargement will take place are not addressed, although chief executive Adrian Collette was very enthusiastic about creative industries in the post-launch Australia Council seminar. </p>
<h2>The first step</h2>
<p>The cultural sector long abandoned the utopian promise of creative hubs and Macbook-driven start-ups. </p>
<p>Rather than creative entrepreneurship, workers in the sector are now talking about <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10286632.2022.2064459">co-operatives</a>, unionisation, <a href="https://www.smart.coop">gig worker platforms</a> and other forms of collective organising. The pandemic radically shifted debates on the social function of culture and the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10286632.2021.1938561">welfare of artists in East Asia</a>. </p>
<p>The new <a href="https://theconversation.com/pay-safety-and-welfare-how-the-new-centre-for-arts-and-entertainment-workplaces-can-strengthen-the-arts-sector-198859">Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces</a> looks set to be a site of contest, as the reality of exploitation in both the subsidised and commercial sector is given a new visibility.</p>
<p>The curtain has been drawn on neoliberalism but, as economist <a href="https://www.blackincbooks.com.au/books/zombie-economics">John Quiggin</a> made us all aware, its zombie form still lives on. </p>
<p>Revive is the first step into a new global landscape for which we barely have a language. This has to come not from government but from those working in the cultural sector itself. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/pay-safety-and-welfare-how-the-new-centre-for-arts-and-entertainment-workplaces-can-strengthen-the-arts-sector-198859">Pay, safety and welfare: how the new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces can strengthen the arts sector</a>
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<p><em>Correction: an earlier version of this story misnamed the CEO of the Australia Council. It is Adrian Collette.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198871/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin O'Connor receives funding from the Australia Research Council</span></em></p>Revive is the first step into a new global landscape for which we barely have a language.Justin O'Connor, Professor of Cultural Economy, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1988592023-01-31T04:22:52Z2023-01-31T04:22:52ZPay, safety and welfare: how the new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces can strengthen the arts sector<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/507262/original/file-20230131-16-ddual9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5160%2C3437&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Terren Hurst on Unsplash</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In May, <a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">we predicted</a> Tony Burke’s joint portfolio of workplace relations and the arts was an opportunity to address some of the challenges facing the arts and cultural sector. </p>
<p>With the <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">launch of Revive</a>, the new national cultural policy, we’re seeing this potentially start to pay off. </p>
<p>One focal point of Revive is the establishment of the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, a new body within Creative Australia (a rebranded and expanded Australia Council). The role of the centre is,
<a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place">according to the policy</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>to provide advice on issues of pay, safety and welfare in the arts and entertainment sector, refer matters to the relevant authorities and develop codes of conduct and resources for the sector.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The policy frames artists as workers deserving of workplace protections and rights. As Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said at the launch: “Arts jobs are real jobs.” </p>
<p>It’s no secret the arts sector has a poor track record when it comes to working conditions. A <a href="https://futurework.org.au/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2021/07/Creativity_in_Crisis-_Rebooting_Australias_Arts___Entertainment_Sector_-_FINAL_-_26_July.pdf">report from 2021</a> noted 45% of Australia’s arts and cultural workers were in casual or insecure roles. The gender pay gap in the arts is <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/advocacy-and-research/culture-and-the-gender-pay-gap-for-australian-artists/">9% wider</a> than other sectors of the economy. The music industry continues to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/music/2022/sep/01/a-very-low-glass-ceiling-sexism-and-harassment-rife-in-australian-music-long-awaited-report-finds">make headlines</a> for widespread bullying and sexual harassment. Meanwhile, the sector is struggling to <a href="https://theconversation.com/junior-staff-are-finding-better-contracts-senior-staff-are-burning-out-the-arts-are-losing-the-war-for-talent-194174">attract and retain workforce talent</a>. </p>
<p>It’s clear things need to change. </p>
<p>What role could the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces play in addressing these issues? </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">Tony Burke's double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs</a>
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<h2>Benchmarking standards</h2>
<p>The centre’s role will be a mix of regulation, policy and provision of resources. </p>
<p>It will be able to set standards around minimum inclusions in grant processes – such as compliance with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/employers-will-have-positive-duty-to-prevent-sexual-harassment-in-workplaces-under-new-legislation-191350">Respect@Work</a> recommendations. The centre will also act as a referral agency to organisations such as Fair Work Australia and Comcare. Whether it will function as an investigative or policing body remains to be seen. </p>
<p>Its overarching responsibility will be to establish a connection between the arts and issues of pay, safety and welfare. </p>
<p>The development of safe workplaces relies, first and foremost, on the provision of fair and equitable wages. If artists can’t survive financially, they can’t thrive.</p>
<p>The Australia Council has <a href="https://australiacouncil.gov.au/investment-and-development/protocols-and-resources/payment-of-artists/">highlighted the importance</a> of fair pay. The council has a dedicated web page on artist payments and requires funding applicants to meet the minimum rates of pay under relevant industry standards. </p>
<p>The challenge has been a lack of consistent industrial benchmarks establishing these standards and the absence of consequences for organisations that choose to ignore them. Part of the difficulty also stems from the <a href="https://livemusicoffice.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/CIIC-Valuing-Australias-Creative-Industries-2013.pdf">size and structure of many arts organisations</a>, which often lack designated human resources specialists. This leaves independent contractors and casual workers with little formal recourse against unfair working conditions. </p>
<p>Efforts to promote artist safety and welfare also already exist in Australia cultural policy. <a href="https://www.dpc.sa.gov.au/responsibilities/arts-and-culture/grants/guidelines">Arts South Australia</a>, has incorporated “respectful behaviours” guidelines into their funding agreements. But, like fair pay, these kinds of policies can be vague and often little more than aspirational in practice. </p>
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<p>There is an opportunity for the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces to establish strong standards set expectations within the sector and help to hold arts organisations to account. </p>
<p>Burke told <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/hack/14139276">Triple J’s Hack</a> the centre will develop codes of conduct, and if organisations aren’t “keeping up to date” with these codes around workplace bullying and harassment, they will not be able to “come knocking on the door for government funding”. </p>
<p>The centre will also importantly function as a point of contact and referral for arts workers who have nowhere else to go for support.</p>
<p>Other areas where the centre can offer substantive value are in the improvement of workplace standards and the communication of revised industrial frameworks and awards. However, the centre’s ability to build of new cultures across the <a href="https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/characteristics-of-employment-and-business-activity-in-cultural-and-creative-sectors_0.pdf">dispersed workforce</a> of freelancers, sole traders and small to medium enterprises will remain a significant challenge. </p>
<p>Arts workers recognise the need for change, but they need access to specialist advice to achieve it. </p>
<h2>Signs of optimism</h2>
<p>There has been <a href="https://www.artshub.com.au/news/opinions-analysis/national-cultural-policy-revives-unfamiliar-hope-2608706/">some unease</a> about the increased role of arts bureaucracy within the new cultural policy. The decision to create three new administrative entities in addition to the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces – all with significant budgets – highlights concerns institutions are once again being prioritised over individual artists. </p>
<p>In the case of the centre, the key will be whether the body can actually address the art sector’s unstable and inequitable workplace conditions through its policies and regulations. </p>
<p>As a sign of optimism, this model isn’t without precedent. The Swedish arts sector has seen significant success using a <a href="https://fr.unesco.org/creativity/policy-monitoring-platform/measures-gender-equality-area">similar top-down institutional approach</a> to address cultural workforce issues, particularly around gender inequality. </p>
<p>Since 2006, Sweden has implemented multiple policies leveraging access to funding and quotas to increase women’s representation in the arts. In 2011, the Swedish Arts Council even launched a <a href="https://musikverket.se/om-musikverket/?lang=en">dedicated agency</a> to help support projects promoting gender equality in music. </p>
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<p>Ultimately, what the centre achieves will be shaped by the decision-makers within it. The centre’s staff must represent Australia’s diverse creative community and clearly understand how and why things must change. As <a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">Jo Caust notes</a>, detail and execution are critical. Cultural policy is more than words, it’s what happens after that makes the difference. </p>
<p>As columnist Sean Kelly <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/can-australia-become-a-nation-that-takes-art-seriously-20230127-p5cg1s.html">suggests</a>, Revive’s true measure of success will be the health of arts workplaces: </p>
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<p>Burke will be judged on whether the arts again becomes a field that people want to work in – a field in which workers are respected and paid properly for their work.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces will play a crucial role in determining that success. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/arts-are-meant-to-be-at-the-heart-of-our-life-what-the-new-national-cultural-policy-could-mean-for-australia-if-it-all-comes-together-198786">'Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life': what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198859/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The centre will importantly function as a point of contact and referral for arts workers who have nowhere else to go for support.Kim Goodwin, Lecturer, The University of MelbourneCaitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987862023-01-30T06:41:47Z2023-01-30T06:41:47Z‘Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life’: what the new national cultural policy could mean for Australia – if it all comes together<p>It’s finally been launched. <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place">A new cultural policy</a> for Australia. After years (actually decades) of neglect, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese today launched a new national cultural policy, Revive. In his speech he said:</p>
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<p>Arts are meant to be at the heart of our life</p>
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<p>It’s important that our prime minister says this and owns the centrality of culture in our lives. The last prime minister who acknowledged the importance of the arts in Australian life was Paul Keating 30 years ago.</p>
<p>It has been a long time since.</p>
<p>The arts have had a tough time in Australia for many years. While the population of Australia has increased, arts funding has remained stagnant. In some areas of funding, such as grants for individual artists, there has been at least a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/19/the-70-drop-australia-council-grants-artists-funding-cuts">70% drop</a> since 2013. </p>
<p>The Labor Party last launched a cultural policy, <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/FlagPost/2013/April/Creative_Australia__National_Cultural_Policy_2013">Creative Australia</a>, in March 2013. Soon after, Labor lost government and Creative Australia never came to fruition. Under the Coalition government, Australia did not have a national cultural policy.</p>
<p>So what does this new document mean for Australia’s artists – and audiences – going forward?</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/albanese-promises-national-aboriginal-art-gallery-in-alice-springs-and-pivots-towards-the-modern-and-mainstream-in-new-cultural-policy-198741">Albanese promises National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs and pivots towards the modern and mainstream in new cultural policy</a>
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<h2>‘Modernising’ the Australia Council</h2>
<p>Revive is framed as being inclusive. Its subtitle is “a place for every story, a story for every place”. Throughout the document, First Nations people are given priority. The hefty policy document comes in at more than 100 pages, and the preface by Christos Tsiolkas and Clare Wright is a must-read, setting the tone for what is to follow.</p>
<p>The centrepiece of the new policy seems to be the rebranding, or “modernising”, of the Australia Council. While the name of the legal governing body will remain at the top, the name underneath will become Creative Australia. </p>
<p>What happens within will also seemingly change. </p>
<p>The government is restoring previous funding cuts ($44 million) to the Australia Council. There will also be new entities within the Creative Australia revised framework, each with a new budget. These are a new First Nations First Body ($35.5 million), Music Australia ($69.4 million), Writers Australia ($19.3 million) and the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces ($8.1 million). </p>
<p>There will be a further investment in “works of scale” ($19 million), which seems to be aimed at helping work translate through different mediums or for different audiences.</p>
<p>In this new framework, there is an emphasis on First Nations programs being led by First Nations people. Alongside the First Nations First Body, $11 million will go towards establishing a First Nations Languages Policy Partnership, incorporating languages into Australian education, and $13.4 million will be directed to legislation to protect First Nations knowledge and cultural expressions, including ensuring the authenticity of First Nations art.</p>
<p>The changes beg the question: what will happen to existing structures within the Australia Council? The Australia Council <a href="https://mailchi.mp/australiacouncil/announcements-opportunities-more-6110209?e=276d6e8253">has announced</a> its own briefing in relation to the policy later in the week.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/tony-burkes-double-ministry-of-arts-and-industrial-relations-could-be-just-what-the-arts-sector-needs-183623">Tony Burke's double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs</a>
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<h2>Not just for the arts industry</h2>
<p>The remodelled agency will not just be responsible for the not-for-profit sector but also the commercial sector, particularly popular music and publishing, and philanthropy. </p>
<p>An important step forward in the policy is the emphasis on the centrality of the artist and acknowledging arts workers as legitimate workers. The creation of a Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces will <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/crackdown-on-sexual-harassment-abuse-and-bullying-in-the-arts-20230127-p5cfy3.html">aim to address</a> issues around professional payments and conditions for arts workers. </p>
<p>There is also reference to the crucial role of arts education. This is a positive step forward with a commitment of $2.6 million to support specialist in-school arts education programs.</p>
<p>Other areas that are acknowledged are the development of an Arts and Disability Plan ($5 million) and pilot funding of $4.2 million to support access to art and music therapy programs.</p>
<p>The introduction of <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/australian-authors-to-receive-compensation-for-e-book-loans-for-first-time-20230127-p5cfxk.html">lending rights fees</a> for the digital area is a long overdue reform and will be important for writers ($12.9 million). The <a href="https://www.arts.gov.au/funding-and-support/resale-royalty-scheme">resale royalties scheme</a> for visual arts practice ($1.8 million) will also be important, but may be impossible to enforce internationally.</p>
<p>There is also a commitment to better data collection around the sector and the publication of a comprehensive report every three years. This is a move forward, but it needs to include qualitative as well as quantitative data, and needs to be transparent.</p>
<p>There is limited reference in the document to how the <a href="https://www.theage.com.au/national/neglect-of-our-cultural-heritage-will-be-to-the-nation-s-peril-20221212-p5c5r0.html">heritage institutions</a> will be addressed. Present budget shortfalls are affecting their ability to do their role. The government has said previously it will be addressing this in the next budget. </p>
<p>There is a commitment, though, of $11.8 million towards loaning the collection of the National Gallery of Australia to suburban and regional art galleries, and the regional area arts fund will get a boost of $8.5 million.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-is-to-have-a-poet-laureate-how-will-the-first-appointment-define-us-as-a-nation-198769">Australia is to have a poet laureate – how will the first appointment define us as a nation?</a>
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<h2>A success still to be seen</h2>
<p>A promise in the document to ensure Australian stories are being told <a href="https://theconversation.com/streaming-platforms-will-soon-be-required-to-invest-more-in-australian-tv-and-films-which-could-be-good-news-for-our-screen-sector-198757">through streaming services</a> is going to be important. How this will be achieved is yet to be revealed.</p>
<p>There is limited reference to increasing Australia’s cultural presence abroad, but the details are vague and this again has been an area of significant neglect for several years.</p>
<p>The small to medium sector and individual artists have suffered the most over the 20 years of reduced funding. How will they fit into this ambitious plan? While there is emphasis on the adequate remuneration of artists, whether the actions recommended will be sufficient remains to be seen.</p>
<p>Overall, there are many positive actions in the new policy, but the devil will be in the details on how it is rolled out.</p>
<p>This new policy is definitely not a game changer, but it is going in a healthier direction.</p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/streaming-platforms-will-soon-be-required-to-invest-more-in-australian-tv-and-films-which-could-be-good-news-for-our-screen-sector-198757">Streaming platforms will soon be required to invest more in Australian TV and films, which could be good news for our screen sector</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received funding from the Australia Council. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA).</span></em></p>This is not quite a game changer, but it is going in a healthier direction.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1987412023-01-29T11:38:12Z2023-01-29T11:38:12ZAlbanese promises National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs and pivots towards the modern and mainstream in new cultural policy<p>The Albanese government’s cultural policy, released Monday, “puts First Nations first”, while also promising regulated Australian content on streaming services and a shift to greater support for the popular in the arts.</p>
<p>The policy reflects the government’s view that arts policy – especially the Australia Council’s priorities – has become too elitist, and should be tilted more towards mainstream and commercial culture.</p>
<p>The initiatives for Indigenous culture include funding the establishment of a National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs. </p>
<p>To be announced by Anthony Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke the policy, called Revive and funded by $286 million over four years, has as its centrepiece the setting up of Creative Australia, which will be the government’s new principal arts investment and advisory body.</p>
<p>Creative Australia’s governing body will continue to be called the Australia Council in what, however, is a total revamp.</p>
<p>Creative Australia will “expand and modernise the Australia Council’s work”, with an extra $200 million over four years. The overhaul is seen as the biggest in the council’s history.</p>
<p>Funding decisions will be at arms length from the government. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-response-to-alice-springs-crisis-poses-early-indigenous-affairs-test-for-albanese-198590">Grattan on Friday: Response to Alice Springs crisis poses early Indigenous affairs test for Albanese</a>
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<p>A statement by Albanese and Burke has been released ahead of the full policy. </p>
<p>Within Creative Australia there will be four new bodies </p>
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<li><p>A First Nations-led body, to give Indigenous people autonomy over decisions and investment </p></li>
<li><p>Music Australia, to invest in the Australian contemporary music industry </p></li>
<li><p>Writers Australia, to support writers and illustrators to create new works </p></li>
<li><p>A Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, “to ensure creative workers are paid fairly and have safe workplaces free from harassment and discrimination”.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Albanese and Burke say Revive “puts First Nations first – recognising and respecting the crucial place of these stories at the heart of our arts and culture”. </p>
<p>In addition to the Creative Australia First Nations’ body the government will </p>
<ul>
<li><p>legislate to protect First Nations knowledge and cultural expressions, including dealing with harm caused by fake art </p></li>
<li><p>develop a First Nations creative workforce strategy </p></li>
<li><p>fund the establishment of both the Alice Springs gallery and an Aboriginal Cultural Centre in Perth </p></li>
<li><p>provide $11 million to set up a First Nations Languages Policy Partnership between Indigenous representatives and Australian governments.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>“Revive also commits the government to regulating Australian content on streaming platforms, improving lending rights and incomes for Australian writers, [and] increased funding for regional art,” Albanese and Burke say. </p>
<p>At present there is no requirement on streaming services to provide a certain amount of Australian content. The government will consult in the next six months, before legislating, with the aim of the regulatory regime coming into operation mid next year. No figure has been set for the Australian content. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-labor-mp-warns-alice-springs-crime-crisis-is-impeding-voice-debate-198312">Federal Labor MP warns Alice Springs crime crisis is impeding Voice debate</a>
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<p>The government says that $241 million is new money while $45 million is redirected from a COVID insurance scheme that is no longer needed. </p>
<p>Albanese said the government’s policy “builds on the proud legacies of earlier Labor governments”. </p>
<p>Burke said that under the policy “there will be a place for every story and a story for every place. </p>
<p>"It is a comprehensive roadmap for Australia’s arts and culture that touches all areas of government, from cultural diplomacy in foreign affairs to health and education. </p>
<p>"Our artists are creators and workers. This sector is essential for our culture and for our economy”. </p>
<p>The industry is worth $17 billion and employs an estimated 400,000 people.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198741/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The policy, called Revive and funded by $286 million over four years, establishes Creative Australia which will be the government’s principle arts investment and advisory bodyMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1956482022-11-30T05:02:03Z2022-11-30T05:02:03ZView from The Hill: Scott Morrison makes parliamentary history – for the worst of reasons<p>Among the slew of mostly predictable speeches that culminated in the first-ever House of Representatives censure of a former prime minister, one stood out. </p>
<p>Bridget Archer, Liberal backbencher from Tasmania, was brief and brave, as she told the house she’d vote to censure her former leader.</p>
<p>The point is not diminished by Archer being something of a habitual rebel. This was a situation totally out of the ordinary. </p>
<p>Having “relentlessly advocated for more integrity in politics”, to “sit quietly now would be hypocritical,” Archer said, as the parliament debated Scott Morrison’s unprecedented move to have himself installed, almost entirely in secret, into multiple ministries. </p>
<p>In a few sentences Archer cut to the chase, rejecting Morrison’s actions, explanation and absence of contrition in the speech he had just delivered to the house. </p>
<p>The Australian people had a right to be informed, she said. “What can be more fundamental than this?” She was “deeply disappointed by the lack of genuine apology”. More importantly, by the failure to understand the impact of what he’d done. </p>
<p>There were things that sat above the cut and thrust of politics, with the motion going to “our system of democracy”, Archer said. </p>
<p>“This issue also sits at the heart of the ability of our party to move forward,” she said. “This is a clear opportunity for a line to be drawn and to move in the right direction. We must heed the message sent to us at the May election – learn those lessons, reset and move forward constructively.”</p>
<p>Archer was the only Liberal to vote for the motion. But Karen Andrews, who has previously said Morrison should quit parliament, abstained. Morrison was Andrews’ secret co-partner in home affairs. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, the opposition generally did not use this as a moment to reject its former prime minister. </p>
<p>Rather the Coalition, denouncing the motion as grubby politics, tried to defend – or, more accurately, to at least provide fig leaves to cover – his indefensible conduct. However, its heart clearly wasn’t in the effort. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-niki-savva-on-her-book-bulldozed-scott-morrison-and-the-liberals-woes-195562">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Niki Savva on her book Bulldozed, Scott Morrison and the Liberals' woes</a>
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<p>Opposition Leader Peter Dutton – who has previously criticised Morrison’s behaviour – didn’t even make a token effort, remaining silent. One can see this as squibbing his duty, condemning Morrison by conspicuous silence, or just finding it all too hard.</p>
<p>The censure condemned Morrison for “failing to disclose his appointments to the House of Representatives, the Australian people and the cabinet, which undermined responsible government and eroded public trust in Australia’s democracy”.</p>
<p>Moving the motion, Leader of the House Tony Burke said the multiple ministries had breached “the absolute core” of responsible government.</p>
<p>“That entire concept of responsible government only works if the parliament and, through the parliament, the Australian people know which members of the executive are responsible for what.</p>
<p>"There is no previous Liberal prime minister where this sort of motion would ever be moved,” Burke said.</p>
<p>Morrison, speaking immediately after Burke, gave a defiant response, repeating many of the arguments he has made previously. </p>
<p>He had no intention of “submitting to the political intimidation of this government using its numbers to impose its retribution on its political opponents”. </p>
<p>He argued: “Just because a minister is sworn to administer a department does not mean they ‘hold the office as minister’ for that portfolio. This means it is a falsehood to state that I was the minister for health or any of the other portfolios that were the subject of the Bell Inquiry.”</p>
<p>This sits at odds with his profile on the official parliamentary website, which indeed now records him as “minister for health”, from March 14 2020 until May 23 2022. His other multi-ministries are also listed, with the relevant dates.</p>
<p>Morrison suggested that if anyone had asked at his “numerous press conferences”, he would have “responded truthfully about the arrangements I had put in place”. </p>
<p>The censure motion was “entirely partisan”, he said, but “I will take the instruction of my faith and turn the other cheek”. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-the-bell-report-on-morrisons-multi-ministries-provides-a-bad-character-reference-195368">View from The Hill: The Bell report on Morrison's multi-ministries provides a bad character reference</a>
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<p>Prime Minister Anthony Albanese positioned himself carefully, leaving ministers – including Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who seconded the motion – to carry the debate, but intervening down the list of speakers to deliver an all-round spray against his predecessor. </p>
<p>He said Morrison “owes an apology to the Australian people for the undermining of democracy, and that’s why this motion should be supported by every member of this house”.</p>
<p>There was a note of more-in-sorrow-than-anger in some of the speeches from crossbenchers, but also clear firmness. Integrity had been at the heart of the teal campaigns, a springboard for their arrival in parliament. But, keeping their contributions short, crossbenchers were also aware of the politics being played in this motion, as Labor keeps the spotlight shining on Morrison.</p>
<p>After a three-hour debate the censure was carried 86-50. The Greens voted for it, along with crossbenchers Sophie Scamps, Kylea Tink, Zoe Daniel, Allegra Spender, Monique Ryan, Andrew Wilkie, Helen Haines, Rebekha Sharkie and Zali Steggall.</p>
<p>Morrison’s public trials are far from over. On December 14, the former treasurer and former social services minister will appear before the Robodebt royal commission. As former High Court judge Virginia Bell said in her report, Morrison’s multi-ministry affair had, in practice, limited effect, wrong as his action was. Robodebt, in contrast, had devastating practical implications for a great many people’s lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195648/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Archer was the only Liberal to vote for the motion. But Karen Andrews, who has previously said Morrison should quit parliament, abstained. Morrison was Andrews’ secret co-partner in home affairs.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1954432022-11-28T03:19:14Z2022-11-28T03:19:14ZScott Morrison to face parliamentary censure for undermining political trust<p>Scott Morrison will face a parliamentary censure motion this week, after the inquiry by former High Court judge Virginia Bell found his multi-ministry power grab “corrosive of trust in government”. </p>
<p>Cabinet on Monday confirmed legislation to implement the Bell recommendations would be introduced this week and the censure would also be moved. </p>
<p>Anthony Albanese is not planning to move it himself – he indicated that would be done by the Leader of the House Tony Burke or Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus. </p>
<p>If the motion is passed, as is certain given the government’s majority, it will be the first time since federation there has been a successful censure by the house against a former PM, according to parliamentary records.</p>
<p>Morrison had himself appointed to five portfolios in 2020-21, with only one of the ministers being aware at the time he was their co-minister. No public announcement was ever made – his actions only came to light after the election. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/view-from-the-hill-the-bell-report-on-morrisons-multi-ministries-provides-a-bad-character-reference-195368">View from The Hill: The Bell report on Morrison's multi-ministries provides a bad character reference</a>
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<p>Bell concluded that “the lack of disclosure of the appointments to the public was apt to undermine public confidence in government. Once the appointments became known, the secrecy with which they had been surrounded was corrosive of trust in government”. </p>
<p>The opposition will vote against the censure. Manager of Opposition Business Paul Fletcher said the motion was “a political stunt” by the government. </p>
<p>Fletcher said the solicitor-general had found no illegality in what Morrison did, nor had Bell. </p>
<p>He told Sky: “Censure motions are typically used to deal with the accountability of a minister to the Parliament. There is no need for a censure motion here. It would purely be an exercise in political payback.”</p>
<p>“The issue of the relationship between the then prime minister and his then ministers – that’s a matter for the prime minister and each of those ministers. I’ve certainly said if I’d been a minister who’d been on the receiving end of this, I would not have been happy. But that’s a very separate question from your calling for consequences.”</p>
<p>Albanese rejected Fletcher’s argument.</p>
<p>“It’s not a personal relationship between two mates over what happened down the pub. This is about accountability of our democratic system, and whether the parliament was functioning properly. And about the relationship between the prime minister and the people of Australia.” </p>
<p>Fletcher flagged the opposition would support the legislation to implement the Bell recommendations to ensure ministerial appointments are always made public. Albanese indicated the legislation mightn’t be passed before parliament rises this week but said regulatory changes had already been made.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195443/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The opposition will vote against the censure, but will support the legislation to implement the Bell recommendations to ensure ministerial appointments are always made public.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1948182022-11-22T02:47:51Z2022-11-22T02:47:51ZChristmas may be safe, but three-year port dispute shows the IR system is full of holes<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/496042/original/file-20221118-25-iapl0i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3834%2C1942&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Australia’s industrial relations umpire has delayed industrial action that would have crippled Australia’s ports in the lead-up to Christmas. </p>
<p>But the dispute in which it has intervened – one that has dragged on since 2019 – shows the need for reform of Australia’s collective bargaining system. </p>
<p>The Fair Work Commission last week intervened in the protracted dispute between tugboat operator Svitzer Australia and three maritime unions after the company declared its intention to “lock out” staff in a bid to force a resolution – either by the unions caving or by the commission using its powers to arbitrate outstanding matters.</p>
<p>Svitzer, a subsidiary of Danish shipping giant Maersk, <a href="https://www.afr.com/work-and-careers/workplace/svitzer-lockout-threatens-port-supply-chain-shutdown-20221114-p5by0t">employs about 600 staff</a> at 17 Australian ports. Its tugboats guide the arrival and departure of container ships <a href="https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/unions-urge-maersks-return-to-negotiating-table-as-australian-court-blocks-controversial-svitzer-tug-lockout/">carrying about 75%</a> of Australia’s trade. The lockout would have prevented ships entering or leaving port.</p>
<p>Last Friday the full bench of the Fair Work Commission <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/sites/svitzer-industrial-action/b2022-1726-decision-2022-fwcfb-209-2022-11-18.pdf">ordered a six-month suspension</a> on any industrial action by Svitzer or the three unions – the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU), the Australian Maritime Officers Union (AMOU), and the Australian Institute of Marine and Power Engineers (AIMPE).</p>
<p>It did so using its powers to stop industrial action that threatens to cause significant damage to the economy or part of it.</p>
<p>However, the commission refused Svitzer’s application to terminate the notified lockout, an outcome that could have led to the commission arbitrating the outstanding matters in dispute. Arbitration appeared to be <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/sites/svitzer-industrial-action/b2022-1726-submissions-svitzer-2022-11-17.pdf">Svitzer’s aim</a> but was opposed <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/documents/sites/svitzer-industrial-action/b2022-1726-outline-of-submissions-mua-2022-11-17.pdf">by the unions</a>.</p>
<h2>Background to the dispute</h2>
<p>Svitzer and the unions began negotiating a new enterprise agreement in late 2019. The company wanted changes to the agreement made in 2016 to give it greater flexibility in hiring staff. The unions opposed these changes on the basis they would lead to greater casualisation. </p>
<p>The process laid down by the Fair Work Act is to negotiate, with “protected industrial action” available to the parties to support their claims. </p>
<p>But the Act’s provisions make it particularly hard for port workers to take impactful industrial action, given the commission can suspend or terminate any action threatening to cause significant economic damage.</p>
<p>In February, the commission <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/document-search/view/aHR0cHM6Ly9zYXNyY2RhdGFwcmRhdWVhYS5ibG9iLmNvcmUud2luZG93cy5uZXQvZGVjaXNpb25zLzIwMjIvMDMvUFI3MzkwNTIyMDgwOTg3MWU5NTU4OTQ1LTc2N2ItNGZkNi1iNTAzLTBkMmViOGJmMWVkYjIwYzBlOTE5LWUwZDgtNDU1ZC05ZDk5LTAxOTIzZjJhYzg5MS5wZGY1/1/141fd88f-c80f-472f-b0ca-6280b2c4fd1a/Svitzer">blocked 48-hour strikes</a> slated for ten ports in Western Australia, Queensland and New South Wales.</p>
<p>As a result, the unions have taken more low-level industrial action, such as work bans and limited stoppages, which are unlikely to attract the attention of the commission. </p>
<p>Svitzer’s decision to lock out workers recalls that of Qantas’s strategy in 2011, when the airline shut down its fleet to push the commission to arbitrate its dispute with unions over a new enterprise agreement. Qantas was widely considered the winner in the subsequent arbitration.</p>
<p>Svitzer’s motivation is to get rid of the 2016 enterprise agreement. Indeed in January it applied to have the commission terminate <a href="https://www.fwc.gov.au/document-search/view/aHR0cHM6Ly9zYXNyY2RhdGFwcmRhdWVhYS5ibG9iLmNvcmUud2luZG93cy5uZXQvZGVjaXNpb25zLzIwMjIvMDYvUFI3NDI0MjEyMzU3NzU4MjhkMDRhOTMyLTFkYTktNDE3YS04Yzc1LTlkZTQ2ZjMyOTY3ZWVmMGI2NmI2LWI5YWItNGRlMy04OGQ2LWZjNTJiNGRlNGZjNS5wZGY1/1/5ca199c2-eff1-4671-8600-d80788e49e52/2022%24%24FWC%24%241438">the agreement</a>, which remains in force until replaced. </p>
<p>Termination would mean Svitzer’s employees would be covered only by award provisions and individual contracts – an effective win for the company. (This application remains before the commission.)</p>
<h2>Will the government’s IR reforms help?</h2>
<p>With a settlement not really any closer, the Svitzer dispute demonstrates the failure of the Fair Work Act to provide a safety valve to resolve intractable disputes. </p>
<p>Employment and workplace relations minister Tony Burke has argued the Albanese government’s industrial relations reforms – yet to pass the Senate – will assist in a dispute like Svitzer. </p>
<p>They will help, but on their own will not be enough.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/employers-say-labors-new-industrial-relations-bill-threatens-the-economy-denmark-tells-a-different-story-193311">Employers say Labor's new industrial relations bill threatens the economy. Denmark tells a different story</a>
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<p>The amendments will remove the ability to seek termination of an existing agreement while bargaining for a new agreement. This provision was not intended to be used as leverage during a dispute, as Svitzer has done. </p>
<p>The amendments also propose a new “intractable dispute mechanism”. This is different from current provisions because it does not require anyone to threaten or take potentially damaging industrial action before a party can seek arbitration by the commission.</p>
<h2>More fixes needed</h2>
<p>However, the bill does nothing to improve the Fair Work Act’s weak requirements for parties to bargain in “good faith”. This will continue to enable surface bargaining, leading to protracted disputes. </p>
<p>The provisions policing industrial action will still be among the most complex and costly in the developed world.</p>
<p>To ensure the Fair Work Commission is seen a fair and reasonable arbitrator, its members (appointed by the federal government) must also better reflect society, to restore faith in the institution for all parties concerned. Otherwise, unions may continue to resist arbitration, fearing the outcome will favour employers.</p>
<p>Moreover, despite the proposed expansion of multi-employer bargaining, the Albanese government has committed to maintaining the primacy of enterprise-level bargaining. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-mandate-for-multi-employer-bargaining-without-it-wages-for-the-low-paid-wont-rise-193829">A mandate for multi-employer bargaining? Without it, wages for the low paid won't rise</a>
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<p>So suppressing workers’ pay and conditions will continue to be strategy to obtain a competitive advantage over other businesses. (Svitzer has argued its 2016 agreement means it cannot compete for port contracts.) </p>
<p>While the focus of our system remains the single enterprise, and workers’ pay and conditions can be used to undercut competitors, disputes like the one at Svitzer will continue to feature in the industrial landscape.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194818/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shae McCrystal receives funding from the Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>The Albanese government’s industrial relations reforms will help avoid protracted industrial conflict, but more is needed.Shae McCrystal, Professor of Labour Law, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1940262022-11-06T08:51:29Z2022-11-06T08:51:29ZGovernment makes concessions on multi-employer bargaining bill<p>The Albanese government has made concessions to employers on its planned extension of multi-employer bargaining, as it hopes to fast track its industrial relations legislation through parliament before Christmas. </p>
<p>Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said on Sunday there would be a change in the proposed way voting would work for these agreements.</p>
<p>He also flagged the government was sympathic to a “grace” period of six months to allow continued negotiations after a single-enterprise agreement ran out before employees were able to seek a multi-employer agreement. </p>
<p>Employers had expressed the “reasonable concern” that a large workplace could overwhelm the vote of a smaller one, in a general vote, Burke said. </p>
<p>Under the amendment, votes by workers – to be part of an agreement, to take industrial action, or to accept an agreement – would be at the individual business level.</p>
<p>“This puts an end to the argument that you’ll end up with workplaces that didn’t want to be part of an agreement but somehow got roped in anyway, or didn’t want to be part of industrial action,” Burke told Sky. </p>
<p>“If you vote against any of the stages at that business level, then you’re not part of it.”</p>
<p>The government says it wants the legislation through this year so it can get wage increases happening as soon as possible. </p>
<p>It believes the extension of multi-employer bargaining, which exists in only very limited form currently, will secure larger pay rises particularly in low paid feminised industries. On Friday the Fair Work Commission handed down its long-awaited decision for aged care workers, awarding a 15% pay rise. </p>
<p>The legislation will be debated in the House of Representatives this week, with a vote on Thursday. The government has the numbers to push it through the house, without any crossbenchers. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/employers-say-labors-new-industrial-relations-bill-threatens-the-economy-denmark-tells-a-different-story-193311">Employers say Labor's new industrial relations bill threatens the economy. Denmark tells a different story</a>
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<p>But in the Senate it needs on extra vote on top of the Greens. Key crossbencher David Pocock, who met Burke on Friday, on Sunday continued to complain about the rush.</p>
<p>“The bill was introduced just over a week ago, and already we’ve seen a number of significant changes flagged by the government. That says to me that we need more time. That’s why I’ve suggested splitting the bill.” </p>
<p>Apart from multi-employer bargaining, the bill includes the scrapping of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and various measures to address the gender pay gap. </p>
<p>One issue that has come up is the threshold number of workers (15 in the current bill) for businesses to fall under the multi-employer bargaining provision. Burke said the Senate crossbench had been raising with him how the number was counted – for example, whether it would be a headcount of employees or full-time equivalents. Burke said he would have discussions about this when the bill reached the Senate. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-jim-chalmers-angus-taylor-and-danielle-wood-on-the-budget-193335">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Jim Chalmers, Angus Taylor and Danielle Wood on the budget</a>
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<p>Business has pressed for the number to be raised to 100. </p>
<p>Jennifer Westacott, Business Council chief executive, welcomed the concessions but said more were needed. </p>
<p>“We’re pleased that we have brought the government back to the table to reduce some of the most harmful unintended consequence of this legislation but big problems remain,” Westacott said. Business argues the changes increase the complexity of an already complex system.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/194026/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke said on Sunday there would be a change in the proposed way voting would work for these agreements.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1933042022-10-26T04:16:14Z2022-10-26T04:16:14ZThis was supposed to be a ‘wellbeing budget’ – so why does it feel like the arts have been overlooked?<p>The first Labor federal budget has come down, but the arts are almost nowhere to be seen. </p>
<p>According to Arts Minister Tony Burke, the government is waiting for its <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-08-25/australia-new-national-cultural-policy-arts-minister-tony-burke/101363244">new cultural policy</a>, to be delivered later this year. </p>
<p>Only then will we know if the government is going to take any real action to address the disastrous issues in the arts sector.</p>
<p>Given the emphasis in the budget on addressing issues around “<a href="https://theconversation.com/wellbeing-its-why-labors-first-budget-will-have-more-rigour-than-any-before-it-187160">wellbeing</a>”, it is worrisome we have longer to wait before issues in the arts are addressed by the Labor government. </p>
<p>It took the Coalition government more than seven months to announce <a href="https://theconversation.com/too-little-too-late-too-confusing-the-funding-criteria-for-the-arts-covid-package-is-a-mess-145397">any real relief</a> to the sector during COVID, by which time many individuals and organisations had given up. Timing is everything when people are desperate.</p>
<p>What are the issues in the arts? Where do we start?</p>
<p>There is the continued <a href="https://theconversation.com/federal-arts-funding-in-australia-is-falling-and-local-governments-are-picking-up-the-slack-124160">funding decline</a> and support of the arts over the past 15 years, the defunding of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/apr/06/we-are-witnessing-a-cultural-bloodbath-in-australia-that-has-been-years-in-the-making">respected arts organisations</a> by the Australia Council since 2016, the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2016/may/19/the-70-drop-australia-council-grants-artists-funding-cuts">dramatic decline</a> in funding support for individual artists, the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/House/Communications/Arts/Report/section?id=committees%2freportrep%2f024535%2f78295">dire impact</a> of the pandemic, and the need to recognise that cultural value is not the same as economic value, and both are needed. </p>
<p>Individuals who work in the arts are highly skilled and talented. Acknowledging their labour as important and valuable is just the beginning. </p>
<p>Our artists are another aspect of our national wealth. Australia cannot afford to ignore them.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-labors-first-budget-in-6-charts-192851">Everything you need to know about Labor's first budget in 6 charts</a>
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<h2>The small budget measures</h2>
<p>Nevertheless, the government has taken action <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e8d16a669Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">in some areas</a>. </p>
<p>This budget sees:</p>
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<li><p>A$83.7 million in restorative funding to the ABC</p></li>
<li><p>$5 million to the <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e96d03256Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">National Aboriginal and Islander Skills Development Association Dance College</a></p></li>
<li><p>$2.4 million to <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e97fc8205Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">Bundanon</a>, an organisation providing artist residencies, an education centre, a gallery and other facilities in regional New South Wales</p></li>
<li><p>$5 million to the <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e991bc782Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">National Institute of Dramatic Art</a> (NIDA) to support ongoing delivery of its courses, and</p></li>
<li><p>$2.4 million over four years from 2022-23 to offset the impact of the efficiency dividend on <a href="https://edm.arts.gov.au/link/id/zzzz6358681e9a735443Pzzzz57fd70ef2def1829/page.html">national performing arts training organisations</a>.</p></li>
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<p>The budget also reflects the merging of Creative Partnerships Australia with the Australia Council.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/jim-chalmers-2022-23-budget-mantra-whatever-you-do-dont-fuel-inflation-192846">Jim Chalmers’ 2022-23 budget mantra: whatever you do, don’t fuel inflation</a>
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<h2>Creative Partnerships Australia</h2>
<p>Creative Partnerships Australia costs the government around $4-5 million a year, so this merging will bring around $15 million to the Council over the next three years. </p>
<p>Creative Partnerships Australia grew out of the Australian Business Arts Foundation (AbaF), an initiative of the Howard government. Its mandate was to promote and facilitate private sector support for the arts and initially it focused on encouraging businesses to engage with the arts. </p>
<p>From 1998 to 2012, AbaF was driven through a council of business representatives, who committed $10,000 each and actively advocated for business partnerships with arts organisations. This council provided a rich resource base of potential benefactors and in its early days <a href="https://www.businessnews.com.au/article/AbaF-support-passes-20m">was successful</a> at doing this. A separate arts philanthropy organisation, Artsupport Australia, sat under the Australia Council with AbaF support.</p>
<p>In 2012 Simon Crean, then arts minister, decided to excise Artsupport Australia from the Australia Council and re-orientate AbaF by <a href="https://www.danceaustralia.com.au/news/new-body-to-promote-private-arts-support">rebranding it</a> as Creative Partnerships Australia. Creative Partnerships Australia since then has had a primary focus on philanthropic support for the arts, and unlike AbaF, also distributes Commonwealth funds through grant programs.</p>
<p>Unlike the Australia Council, Creative Partnerships Australia is based in Melbourne (rather than Sydney), with staff also located in other cities. This means it has more immediate contact with its arts constituents outside Sydney. </p>
<p>The organisation has run many workshops over the years to develop fundraising skills for the arts, and has also been the home of the <a href="https://australianculturalfund.org.au/about/">Australian Cultural Fund</a>, which allows for donations to be given to individual artists and organisations that do not have tax deductibility status. </p>
<p>The loss of this stand-alone entity will likely be felt more by the smaller organisations and individuals than the larger ones. Larger organisations have no difficulty in claiming tax deductibility and greater likelihood of making connections with donors.</p>
<p>The Australia Council is a grant giving body, and has not historically facilitated philanthropy nor been a conduit for tax deductibility. It remains to be seen how these functions will be folded into the Australia Council.</p>
<p>The Labor government has a lot to do to restore confidence in the arts sector and help the sector recover from several terrible years. There is an urgency to this, but this urgency is nowhere to be seen in this budget.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/jim-chalmers-restraint-budget-the-first-stage-of-a-marathon-for-the-treasurer-192841">Jim Chalmers' 'restraint' budget the first stage of a marathon for the treasurer</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jo Caust has previously received from the Australia Council. She is a member of NAVA and the Arts Industry Council (SA).</span></em></p>Arts Minister Tony Burke says the government is waiting for its new cultural policy. But artists are struggling now.Jo Caust, Associate Professor and Principal Fellow (Hon), School of Culture and Communication, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1897862022-09-01T05:01:06Z2022-09-01T05:01:06ZGovernment to legislate for multi-employer bargaining, strengthening push for wage increases<p>The government will bring in early legislation for multi-employer bargaining and a range of other changes to the industrial relations system. </p>
<p>Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke announced the reforms the government will make immediately, at the end of the jobs summit’s Thursday sessions on industrial relations </p>
<p>They include making the Better Off Overall Test (BOOT) simple, flexible and fair. </p>
<p>Burke said consultations on the various measures would begin next week. He plans to introduce the legislation this year. </p>
<p>The government is taking advantage of the summit’s momentum to launch some major changes to the wage-fixing system, arguing that it looks for “consensus” and co-operation rather than unanimity. </p>
<p>Multi-employer bargaining, which is permitted in only very limited circumstances currently, has been a key ACTU demand in the run-up to the summit. Burke last week indicated the government was sympathetic. </p>
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<p>The government has not yet indicated whether it will go to allowing full sectoral bargaining.</p>
<p>Multi-employer bargaining is opposed by large parts of the business community, though it has won conditional support from a section of small business. </p>
<p>The employers are especially concerned it could open the way to industrial action across a sector, such as child care, although it is unclear whether the detail the government is contemplating will allow this. </p>
<p>Innes Willox, chief executive of the Ai Group, told the summit: “There is real concern that such a proposal will risk exposing our community to crippling industrial action across crucial sectors of our economy”. </p>
<p>ACTU secretary Sally McManus said the union movement wanted to see “sustainable pay increases so that working people’s pay keeps up with the cost of living and productivity increases”. </p>
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<p>This meant “we have to modernise the collective bargaining system. We need a system that is simple, fair, accessible, does the job of getting wages moving.”</p>
<p>The government has given ground on being willing to make changes to BOOT, which Labor resisted in opposition. The BOOT provides no worker is made worse off when an enterprise agreement is negotiated. The Fair Work Commission has to be satisfied the employee would be better off overall if the agreement applied than if the relevant award applied.</p>
<p>Burke, however, did not spell out how he envisaged the test being altered. </p>
<p>Among other measures Burke said the government would change the Fair Work Act to </p>
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<li><p>Provide better access to flexible working arrangements and unpaid parental leave so families can share work and care responsibilities </p></li>
<li><p>Increase protection for workers against all forms of discrimination and harassment </p></li>
<li><p>Give the Fair Work Commission the capacity to actively help workers and businesses to reach mutually-beneficial agreements, especially new entrants and small and medium businesses.</p></li>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government will bring in early legislation for multi-employer bargaining and implement a range of other changes to the industrial relations system.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1876012022-07-27T00:15:06Z2022-07-27T00:15:06ZKilling off the building watchdog may not be the win unionists want<p>Australia’s controversial building industry watchdog is earmarked for the chopping block. But federal industrial relations minister Tony Burke has started by <a href="https://theconversation.com/government-pulls-teeth-of-australian-building-and-construction-commission-187593">pulling a few of its teeth</a>.</p>
<p>He’s used his ministerial powers to gut the <a href="https://www.abcc.gov.au/building-code/what-code">code of conduct</a> empowering the Australian Building and Construction Commission to wage war against everything from compulsory union agreements to workers displaying union logos.</p>
<p>The code of conduct applies only to contractors seeking or working on federally funded building projects – but they must comply with it on all their projects. So it has been a big stick for the ABCC.</p>
<p>Burke has likely moved to gut the code now because he can. Abolishing the ABCC will be harder, requiring Senate support to repeal <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00425">the legislation</a> establishing it.</p>
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<h2>How the ABCC came into existence</h2>
<p>The Howard government established the Office of the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner in 2005, following the 2003 <a href="https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id:publications/tabledpapers/19724">final report</a> of the Cole royal commission into the building and construction industry.</p>
<p>The royal commission had found “a culture of lawlessness” in the industry, in which participants</p>
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<p>Criminal activity such as physical violence and taking bribes was not unknown. The larger issue was workers and their union representatives using their collective power – threatening, say, to strike at a critical point – to achieve their demands. </p>
<p>Lawful or not, such behaviour got results, with many employers wary of taking the legal recourse open to them. The ABCC’s main job was to do this on their behalf by enforcing the rules relating to industrial action and freedom of association, among others.</p>
<p>The Gillard Labor government moved to abolish the ABCC in 2012 – though it still saw the value of a specialist regulator, replacing it with the Office of the Fair Work Building Industry Inspectorate. </p>
<p>But the Turnbull Coalition government found the Senate votes in 2016 to re-establish it (with a slightly different name, the Australian Building and Construction Commission). </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/bringing-back-building-watchdog-helps-a-political-agenda-but-not-concerns-about-union-corruption-54051">Bringing back building 'watchdog' helps a political agenda, but not concerns about union corruption</a>
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<p>Since then the ABCC’s main target has been the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union. Of 31 cases it <a href="https://www.abcc.gov.au/legal-cases?case_status=2&case_year=All&case_decision=All&search=&page=0">now has before the courts</a>, 27 involve the union.</p>
<h2>Breaking the code</h2>
<p>The union has certainly given the regulator reason to be active. Its officials have routinely been implicated in unlawful strikes, coercion and other misbehaviour, and the union has paid many millions of dollars in fines. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/militant-unionists-are-striking-out-here-are-4-things-unions-can-do-to-stay-relevant-121040">Militant unionists are striking out: here are 4 things unions can do to stay relevant</a>
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<p>But some of the powers given to the ABCC through the <a href="https://www.abcc.gov.au/building-code/what-code">Code for the Tendering and Performance of Building Work</a> (also introduced by the Turnbull government) were considered petty.</p>
<p>The code included incredibly detailed requirements on how contractors managed worksites, and on what they could agree on through collective bargains. </p>
<p>It banned union imagery because it might imply union membership was compulsory. Even a union’s logo on a safety poster was <a href="https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7689069/ban-on-union-branded-safety-posters/">deemed unacceptable</a>.</p>
<p>The code also precluded employers from agreeing to anything that limited their “right” to manage. As a result the ABCC <a href="https://www.abcc.gov.au/resources/agreement-clauses">ruled that many standard clauses</a> in union-negotiated enterprise agreements breached the code, even though they would be lawful under the Fair Work Act and unremarkable in any other sector.</p>
<h2>Burke’s ministerial powers</h2>
<p>Like the ABCC, the code was mandated through an act of parliament, so it can only be abolished with a further act. But it can be amended by regulation, which is what the minister has done.</p>
<p>Burke’s <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2022L01007">amendments</a> are mostly deletions, leaving just a handful of provisions specifically required by the governing act, and removing the ABCC’s oversight.</p>
<p>Business groups will oppose the changes, but contractors may well breathe a sigh of relief at less red tape. They will no longer have to submit their enterprise agreements or workplace relations management plans for the ABCC’s approval. </p>
<p>Parliament could <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Senate/Powers_practice_n_procedures/Brief_Guides_to_Senate_Procedure/No_19">overule Burke’s amendments</a>. But the more likely argument will be in Senate about the ABCC itself. </p>
<h2>Shifting responsibility to the Fair Work Ombudsman</h2>
<p>With the Greens in support and the Coalition opposed, the government will need one cross-bench vote to abolish the ABCC.</p>
<p>The argument that workers in one industry should not be singled out for special restrictions is a powerful one. </p>
<p>On the other hand, there’s a strong case that CFMMEU officials will not stop breaching what they regard as unjust restrictions. In the absence of the ABCC, it will fall to the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate alleged breaches of the Fair Work Act by union officials or workers. </p>
<p>Burke has said the ombudsman’s office will get more funding to do this, <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/construction-watchdog-s-successor-won-t-be-as-well-funded-government-20220726-p5b4pi.html">but not as much</a> as the ABCC, because it won’t have as many cases to prosecute.</p>
<p>There is some danger the ombudsman will have to choose between diverting resources from other work (such as <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Economics/Underpaymentofwages/Report">combating wage theft</a>) and turning a blind eye to misbehaviour in the building industry, leaving it to those adversely affected to take court action of their own, as occurs in other sectors.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/shocking-yet-not-surprising-wage-theft-has-become-a-culturally-accepted-part-of-business-121038">Shocking yet not surprising: wage theft has become a culturally accepted part of business</a>
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<p>To secure a Senate majority the government may have to commit to giving the Fair Work Ombudsman’s greater resources and priorities.</p>
<p>If that results in a special unit for the building industry, with dedicated resources, unions may well wonder how much has really changed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/187601/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Stewart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Abolishing the Australian Building and Construction Commission may end up empowering the Fair Work Ombudsman to investigate alleged union misbehaviour.Andrew Stewart, John Bray Professor of Law, University of AdelaideLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843262022-06-02T11:47:06Z2022-06-02T11:47:06ZGrattan on Friday: Albanese government mugged by gas crisis as it faces challenge of managing expectations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466761/original/file-20220602-22-2mn4y6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption"></span> </figcaption></figure><p>Tony Burke reads a poem aloud every day and has a piano lesson once a week.</p>
<p>The new minister for employment and workplace relations, as well as minister for the arts, says it’s important not to get trapped by the “facts in front of you” without any room for creative thought.</p>
<p>And, having been a minister before, Burke brings to government lessons learned from first time round. One of them is not to rush things like a bull at a gate.</p>
<p>For former ministers, a second chance at power is a rebirth, an opportunity to do things differently, avoid mistakes, as well as to augment an earlier legacy. Burke is one of more than half the new cabinet who were ministers previously.</p>
<p>Anthony Albanese, with the experience of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, has a headful of the dos and don'ts of exercising power.</p>
<p>By the same token, moving into government can be like having diligently swotted for the big exam and then being hit by some left-field questions on the day.</p>
<p>Labor knew it would inherent a cost-of-living problem – it campaigned on it. But it didn’t expect the dramatic crisis in gas prices Australia is suddenly facing, driven by events in Europe, outages at coal-fired power stations and other factors.</p>
<p>Inevitably, the government is coming under pressure to “do something”, including pulling the “trigger”, established by the Coalition, that would force gas producers to divert exports to supply the domestic market. The “trigger” came after the Gillard government granted licences for gas exports from eastern Australia without any “reservation” provision for domestic use (such as exists in Western Australia).</p>
<p>The challenge for the government is to be seen to be on top of things, while not rushing into precipitate action.</p>
<p>Energy Minister Chris Bowen, another minister with extensive experience in government, including as a treasurer, walked that line on Thursday.</p>
<p>Bowen has convened a meeting of energy ministers for early next week, and he assured reporters Resources Minister Madeleine King was talking to gas companies and Industry Minister Ed Husic was in discussions with large industrial users.</p>
<p>But Bowen pointed out the “trigger”, even if pulled, couldn’t come into force until January.</p>
<p>The government would “take whatever action is necessary”, but after full briefings and gathering all the information.</p>
<p>The next few months will test the government’s ability to the limit on economic and energy issues, as it confronts major problems while trying to manage expectations.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-has-more-women-in-cabinet-than-ever-before-what-difference-will-diversity-make-183538">Australia has more women in cabinet than ever before: what difference will diversity make?</a>
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<p>On the gas crisis, it’s one thing to eschew, as Bowen said, the knee-jerk reaction; it’s another to find an appropriate reaction and know when it has to be applied. </p>
<p>Then there’s the budget. This week’s national accounts showed 3.3% annual economic growth, which was better than anticipated.</p>
<p>Despite this, Treasurer Jim Chalmers – one of the first-time ministers, although a chief of staff to then treasurer Wayne Swan – was negative in his language. Perhaps this is because he is anticipating bringing down what will be a difficult budget. Chalmers’ performance drew some criticism because of the risks of talking down the economy.</p>
<p>What the new government has been talking up is its intention (and ability) to bring a new style and tone to politics. It is setting a high bar for itself because, as the freshness wears off, political behaviour tends to revert to the old ways. The sceptics will say, we’ve held lofty sentiments before and often they haven’t come to much.</p>
<p>Albanese invokes the Hawke “consensus” approach as a model. A major test of this will be the jobs summit the government plans to hold ahead of the October budget.</p>
<p>Hawke’s 1983 economic summit is the gold standard for summits. Attended by employer, union and community representatives, it ran for nearly a week and enabled a detailed airing of issues. In 1985, Labor’s tax summit was a much more fractured affair; it laid the path for some important reforms but failed to pull off support for Paul Keating’s desired consumption tax.</p>
<p>Kevin Rudd’s Australia 2020 summit, co-chaired by Glyn Davis, the man Albanese this week announced will head the prime minister’s department, was an altogether different gathering.</p>
<p>It was an occasion for the free flow of ideas, with an overlay of celebrity. It was criticised for the later outcomes failing to live up to the hype.</p>
<p>To get the best out of the jobs summit – which is to be followed by a white paper – it should be broad in the issues addressed, but focused, and backed by extensive preparatory research. It should run long enough for detailed discussion. A few hours won’t cut it.</p>
<p>It should also be public. This has the downside of excessive grandstanding – the usual suspects saying the usual things – and requires careful management. But it has the upside of allowing voters a (modest) degree of buy-in to the policy process.</p>
<p>The government is also promising to deliver a parliament that behaves and operates better. It is certainly confronting a transformed House of Representatives, in which the crossbenchers have swelled to 16 (including four Greens).</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/politics-with-michelle-grattan-tony-burke-advocates-on-wages-and-arts-184319">Politics with Michelle Grattan: Tony Burke advocates on wages and arts</a>
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<p>This influx would force changes of itself. For example, last term the crossbench had only one question each day – that will naturally increase.</p>
<p>Burke, in his role as leader of the house, is open to other changes, but makes it clear there are limits.</p>
<p>He is not inclined to supplementary questions (which happen in the Senate). And forget an end to “Dorothy Dixers” – questions from backbenchers inviting ministers to say what good things the government is doing. Burke thinks that’s too valuable a platform to give up.</p>
<p>Will we see less sledging and general bad behaviour in the house? The larger crossbench will promote an improvement. But the conduct will also depend on the strength of whoever Labor puts in as speaker, and how Peter Dutton (a natural headkicker) approaches his role of opposition leader.</p>
<p>As well, the tone is likely to worsen later in the term, when contestants are shaping up for another bout at the ballot box.</p>
<p>The public want better standards of parliamentary behaviour. But old ways are hard to break, so let’s judge in three years’ time.</p>
<p>Another big front on which Albanese has raised expectations is federal-state relations, although he hasn’t sketched out detail.</p>
<p>Scott Morrison’s national cabinet had a mixed record in the COVID era. Relations between federal and state governments varied from co-operative to fractious, depending on the time and issue.</p>
<p>Albanese faces four Labor states, with New South Wales and Tasmania in non-Labor hands. Not that political stripe necessarily determines where a state stands on issues – for example, the GST distribution sees WA set against other states.</p>
<p>Two state elections are looming – in Victoria in November, and NSW in March. If the Perrottet government, which is progressive on issues such as climate and tax, were returned, it would likely be anxious to co-operate with the Albanese government on a reform agenda. If there were a new government in Victoria, that state would likely be less co-operative.</p>
<p>The experience of the pandemic has profoundly altered the federation, without any formal change of the constitution. The premiers have been empowered and energised. Albanese needs to weld them together to deliver a slate of national outcomes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184326/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Labor knew it would inherent a cost-of-living problem – it campaigned on it. But it didn’t expect the dramatic crisis in gas prices Australia is suddenly facingMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1843192022-06-02T06:50:43Z2022-06-02T06:50:43ZPolitics with Michelle Grattan: Tony Burke advocates on wages and arts<p>Tony Burke is the minister for employment and workplace relations and minister for the arts, as well as the leader of the House of Representatives. </p>
<p>One of his first tasks is the government’s new submission for the minimum wage case, which will say these workers should not be left behind, as inflation has spiked. </p>
<p>If the Fair Work Commission gives a 5.1% rise, in line with inflation, is there a case for it not flowing through to awards, or all awards? </p>
<p>“I can’t imagine a situation where there was no flow-through at all. The commission always has the capacity to work out how the flow-through might happen.” He notes one option floated has been a flat dollar increase so the flow-through happened differently. </p>
<p>“The commission will work that through. But certainly there are many awards that are not far from the minimum wage. </p>
<p>"And when we talk about the heroes of the pandemic a lot of those people are on those awards. So while the focus has been specifically minimum wage, I tend to use the term low-paid workers.” </p>
<p>On reforming parliament, Burke says he is not trying to get rid of the anger. He doesn’t want to turn parliament into “a quiet, polite dinner party”. </p>
<p>“The debate is fierce and passionate and real. I think that matters and I think it’s good for democracy.”</p>
<p>Nor is he in favour of scrapping “dorothy dixers”, because the government needs the opportunity to tell the house what it is doing. </p>
<p>But there will be more questions for the larger crossbench, and he flags the government won’t so routinely shut down opposition moves for debates. </p>
<p>“Standing Orders say there’s one question from the crossbench. With a crossbench as large as what we’re now facing, that’s just not sustainable.”</p>
<p>Without changing that, “you’re effectively telling a very large number of Australians that because they didn’t vote for a major party, their voice is going to be heard less.”</p>
<p>Burke says he has a passion for the arts – he was briefly arts minister at the end of the last Labor government – and laments a lack of a cultural policy in recent years.</p>
<p>“In cultural terms, what the arts, events, entertainment sector do matters to who we are as Australians. And that affects your education policy, your health policy, your trade policy, your foreign affairs policy. Nor has there been any guidance that these are serious industries and these are serious jobs.”</p>
<p>The arts are really important in giving people a capacity to imagine and create, Burke says. They are “really important for us as a nation. I don’t think we’ve had an arts minister see it as a priority in that sense for a long time, and I really want to bring that back”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/184319/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Michelle Grattan speaks with Tony Burke the minister for employment and workplace relations and minister for the arts, as well as the leader of the House of Representatives.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1836232022-05-26T00:25:38Z2022-05-26T00:25:38ZTony Burke’s double ministry of arts and industrial relations could be just what the arts sector needs<p>With the swearing in of a new arts minister, there is a unique opportunity to address some of the structural issues around pay and job precarity in the arts and build a more equitable and diverse sector. </p>
<p>After holding the shadow portfolios, it is expected Tony Burke will be sworn in as minister for the arts and minister for industrial relations: the first federal minister to hold the pairing of these two portfolios. </p>
<p>A member of parliament since 2004, Burke briefly held the arts portfolio in the Gillard/Rudd ministry before becoming opposition spokesperson in 2016. He became shadow minister for industrial relations in 2019.</p>
<p>Through his time in parliament, Burke has often showcased his passion for the arts on his social media accounts, and he even keeps a selection of guitars in his parliamentary office (where he is known to play with other politicians in a Labor caucus band). </p>
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<p>Burke has also long advocated for addressing issues of insecure work and unreliable pay, claiming Labor would launch <a href="https://www.tonyburke.com.au/media-releases/2020/12/14/labor-secures-inquiry-into-insecure-work">a senate inquiry</a> into insecure work if elected. </p>
<p>The arts and cultural sector has the dubious title of being an industry leader in insecure work. And it is at the intersection of cultural and industrial relations policy where our new arts minister could dramatically reshape the sector. </p>
<h2>A precarious sector</h2>
<p>In the final days of the election campaign, the Biennale of Sydney <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/why-is-a-major-sydney-arts-festival-working-with-google-to-offer-an-unpaid-internship-20220516-p5als1.html">faced criticism</a> after advertising an unpaid internship position. </p>
<p>Offered in partnership with Google Arts and Culture, the position involved cataloguing responsibilities and the creation of original content over the course of three months – all for no pay.</p>
<p>The arts and cultural sector is no stranger to unpaid internships. With limited full-time and salaried positions available, many arts workers use <a href="https://news.artnet.com/art-world/a-call-to-end-unpaid-internships-in-the-art-world-1603792">internships and other forms of unpaid labour</a> as a way of gaining a foothold in the industry. </p>
<p>Even once established, arts workers typically <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-a-career-in-culture-why-sustaining-a-livelihood-in-the-arts-is-so-hard-171732">rely on a combination</a> of short-term and gig-based work, often at extremely low rates of pay.</p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-crisis-of-a-career-in-culture-why-sustaining-a-livelihood-in-the-arts-is-so-hard-171732">The crisis of a career in culture: why sustaining a livelihood in the arts is so hard</a>
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<p>Arts organisations are often built on a foundation of <a href="https://www.artsprofessional.co.uk/news/exploitation-rife-unpaid-work-subsidises-arts">cheap or free labour</a>. Faced with budget shortfalls and a lack of government support, many organisations have few options but to perpetuate the precarity of work in the sector. </p>
<p>This means taking advantage of workers who are desperate to gain industry experience and build professional networks. </p>
<p>The sector’s reliance on unpaid work has far-reaching consequences for its diversity. With unpaid work a key feature of the industry, arts workers who can’t afford to work for free are essentially <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/21/pandemic-britain-arts-coronavirus-culture-bailout-unlikely-reach-diverse-working-class">forced out of the labour pool</a>. This creates a sector that largely excludes anyone from a working-class background. </p>
<p>Over the past two years, the situation facing arts workers has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-05/covid-impact-on-australian-theatre-and-performing-arts-funding/100868278">reached a tipping point</a>. Many artists and arts workers were excluded <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">from receiving JobKeeper</a> or other forms of pandemic support. This led to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/music/why-the-arts-industry-is-in-dire-straits-no-matter-who-wins-the-election-20220516-p5alpd.html">greater numbers of arts workers abandoning the sector</a> in favour of more stable employment – and an increasingly narrow pool of workers who can afford to stay.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-government-says-artists-should-be-able-to-access-jobkeeper-payments-its-not-that-simple-138530">The government says artists should be able to access JobKeeper payments. It's not that simple</a>
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<h2>An industrial relations approach</h2>
<p>As part of their election commitments, the new Labor government said they will again implement a <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-do-the-major-parties-compare-on-arts-and-cultural-policy-we-asked-5-experts-183209">national cultural policy</a>. But it is within his other portfolio that Burke could have the greatest impact on the sector. </p>
<p>When launching Labor’s arts policy at Melbourne’s Esplanade Hotel on May 16, <a href="https://www.tonyburke.com.au/speechestranscripts/2022/5/17/speech-labors-arts-policy-launch-the-espy-melbourne-16-may-2022">Burke acknowledged</a> cultural policy isn’t just about the arts:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Arts isn’t simply about entertainment, leisure and hobbies. At its best it affects our education policy, our health policy, our trade, our relations around the world, our industrial relations approach and is a driver of economic growth.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The arts and cultural sector have loudly condemned the lack of economic support received over the past decade, as well as during the pandemic. </p>
<p>But arts organisations must also take responsibility for contributing to a labour market environment that exploits workers and creates barriers to workers from diverse socio-economic backgrounds, and Burke needs to hold these organisations to account. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="An art gallery" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/465184/original/file-20220525-24-8ux0mi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The Biennale of Sydney advertised for an unpaid internship, working with Google Arts & Culture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Considering the inclusion of labour standards within grant agreements could establish a stronger culture of fair pair for all arts workers. Similarly, Burke could institute stronger regulations on the use of internships versus paid work. </p>
<p>Arts work is work and should be compensated accordingly. </p>
<p>The Biennale of Sydney states in the advertisement for its unpaid intern that “art should be accessible to all.” Our incoming arts minister can help to make this a reality, not just for audiences but for workers as well. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wages-and-women-top-albaneses-ir-agenda-the-big-question-is-how-labor-keeps-its-promises-183527">Wages and women top Albanese's IR agenda: the big question is how Labor keeps its promises</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183623/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>After holding the shadow portfolios, it is expected Tony Burke will be sworn in as minister for the arts and minister for industrial relations.Kim Goodwin, Teaching Specialist, The University of MelbourneCaitlin Vincent, Lecturer in Creative Industries, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1703002021-10-20T10:59:55Z2021-10-20T10:59:55ZGovernment shuts down move to refer Christian Porter’s secret funds to privileges inquiry<p>The government has blocked an inquiry into whether Christian Porter breached parliamentary privilege in refusing to reveal who donated to his legal costs.</p>
<p>This was despite Speaker Tony Smith giving the Labor motion for the reference precedence to be debated, which would normally see the house send the matter to the privileges committee.</p>
<p>Manager of opposition business Tony Burke said this was the first time a government had voted against a privileges referral to which a speaker had given precedence.</p>
<p>After Labor argued on Monday Porter should be referred, Smith announced on Wednesday that “based on my careful consideration of all of the information available to me, I am satisfied that a prima facie case has been made out”.</p>
<p>Smith made it clear that saying this “does not imply a conclusion that a breach … has occurred”.</p>
<p>House of Representative practice specifies that to grant precedence to a privilege motion the speaker must be satisfied “a prima facie case of contempt or breach of privilege has been made out”.</p>
<p>The government opposed the motion, which was then voted down.</p>
<p>Burke said the government had abandoned a principle that had been a “a key protection against corruption” since the federal parliament came into existence.</p>
<p>“That means we may never learn the truth about who paid Mr Porter’s legal bills and what they may expect in return.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/christian-porter-quits-cabinet-refusing-to-find-out-who-gave-him-money-for-legal-costs-168246">Christian Porter quits cabinet, refusing to find out who gave him money for legal costs</a>
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<p>"This is a disgraceful, shameful moment in Australian political history,” Burke said in a statement.</p>
<p>Porter was forced to step down from the ministry last month because he would not supply names of those who donated to a “blind trust” to help with his bills for the defamation action he took against the ABC. He said he didn’t know the names, and was “not prepared to seek to break the confidentiality of those people who contributed to my legal fees”. </p>
<p>The leader of the house, Peter Dutton, in opposing the reference, told the house there was a much broader issue because there were “a number of other cases which are of a similar ilk”.</p>
<p>Dutton has written to privileges committee chairman Russell Broadbent asking the committee to clarify what the MPs’ register requires when members receive third party contributions or assistance, including from crowd funding and political parties, for personal legal matters, or any other matters.</p>
<p>The letter specifies assistance for legal costs in the form of financial or non-financial contributions and provision of legal services on a reduced or no-fee basis.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/grattan-on-friday-porters-funding-from-a-blind-trust-is-an-integrity-test-for-morrison-168112">Grattan on Friday: Porter's funding from a 'blind trust' is an integrity test for Morrison</a>
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<p>In parliament Dutton instanced crowd funding by Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young for her legal action against then senator David Leyonhjelm.</p>
<p>He pointed to a number of names that obviously were made up.</p>
<p>Hanson-Young said she had received 1800 donations, with only eight donations above the disclosable $300 threshold.</p>
<p>“I have declared all donations in the spirit of members and senators interests and Mr Porter should do the same.”</p>
<p>A spokeswoman said those with false names were all under the threshold.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/170300/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Government has blocked an inquiry that could determine whether Christian Porter breached parliamentary privilege by refusing reveal the names of those who donated to his legal costsMichelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/863992017-10-26T23:33:47Z2017-10-26T23:33:47ZThe case of Michaelia Cash and her leaking adviser illustrates a failure of ministerial responsibility<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/191960/original/file-20171026-28036-pjf32w.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Michaelia Cash has refused to resign over misleading parliament, claiming she was unaware of one of her staffer’s actions.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AAP/Lukas Coch</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The federal opposition is <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/michaelia-cash-clings-to-job-as-malcolm-turnbull-backs-her-in-20171026-gz8te3.html">continuing to call</a> for Employment Minister Michaelia Cash’s resignation, claiming she misled parliament this week after repeatedly telling a Senate estimates committee that neither she nor her office had any involvement in tipping off the media about a police raid.</p>
<p>Cash’s senior media adviser, David De Garis, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/oct/25/michaelia-cash-and-the-rogue-staffer-when-political-theatre-goes-off-script">later confessed</a> he had leaked information about the raid on the Australian Workers Union’s offices to the press. Cash retracted her statements and <a href="https://theconversation.com/cash-staff-member-quits-over-media-tip-offs-as-awu-affair-backfires-86357">De Garis resigned</a>. </p>
<p>Labor frontbencher Tony Burke <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-25/cash-staffer-resigns-over-awu-raids/9086214">argued</a> that “the wrong person has resigned”. But Cash has refused to resign, claiming she was unaware of her staffer’s actions. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/michaelia-cash-clings-to-job-as-malcolm-turnbull-backs-her-in-20171026-gz8te3.html">has defended</a> Cash, saying she acted properly.</p>
<h2>Who are these advisers?</h2>
<p>Ministerial advisers are partisan staff who are personally appointed by ministers and work out of the ministers’ private offices. </p>
<p>The number of Commonwealth ministerial staff <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Senate_Estimates/fapactte/estimates/sup1516/finance/index">has increased</a> over the years from 155 in 1972 to 423 in 2015. </p>
<p>Ministerial advisers undertake a wide range of functions. Tony Nutt, a long-time former adviser, <a href="http://www.monash.edu/news/opinions/what-lessons-can-we-draw-from-the-leaked-tapes-crisis">has said</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… a ministerial adviser deals with the press. A ministerial adviser handles the politics. A ministerial adviser talks to the union. All of that happens every day of the week, everywhere in Australia all the time. Including frankly, the odd bit of, you know, ancient Spanish practices and a bit of bastardry on the way through. That’s all the nature of politics.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The question is what happens if advisers overstep their roles? </p>
<h2>Ministerial responsibility and political advisers</h2>
<p>According to the doctrine of ministerial responsibility, ministers are responsible to parliament for the acts of their departments. </p>
<p>British academic Sir Ivor Jennings <a href="https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/711704">wrote</a> that the “act of every civil servant is by convention regarded as the act of the minister”. And British MP Lord Morrison <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Canadian_Constitutional_Conventions.html?id=RpfTngEACAAJ&redir_esc=y">proclaimed</a> that the “minister is responsible for every stamp stuck on an envelope”. </p>
<p>But it is doubtful that this principle has ever reflected reality. It is rare for ministers to resign or even accept responsibility for the actions of their department, where they were not personally involved.</p>
<p>Ministers should also technically take responsibility for the actions of advisers in their own offices, who are at an even higher level of direct ministerial control than departments.</p>
<p>Even more than public servants, advisers are seen to be acting as alter egos of their ministers. This means ministers should be accountable to parliament for the actions of their advisers – even those they did not authorise. </p>
<p>But what happens in reality is that ministers tend to use their advisers as scapegoats and blame them for controversial events. This is consistent with <a href="http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc1/PublicChoiceTheory.html">“public choice” theory</a>, which predicts that politicians have the incentive to deflect all the blame that comes in their direction while accepting the credit for anything that goes right.</p>
<h2>How are advisers regulated?</h2>
<p>Australia has <a href="https://www.federationpress.com.au/bookstore/book.asp?isbn=9781760020637">inadequate legal and political regulation</a> of ministerial advisers. They are subject to a <a href="https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/statement_ministerial_standards.pdf">Statement of Standards</a>, which sets out the standards they are supposed to meet in preforming their duties. </p>
<p>Sanctions under the standards are handled internally within the executive through the Prime Minister’s Office. This means any breaches of the standards by ministerial advisers would be handled behind closed doors, without the scrutiny of parliament or any external bodies. </p>
<p>Ministerial advisers have <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/BWhmTMdqgKaAj7cNcvDX/full">also refused</a> to appear before parliamentary committees on their minister’s instruction. This has impeded the investigations of significant parliamentary committees, including the <a href="https://www.aph.gov.au/binaries/senate/committee/maritime_incident_ctte/report/report.pdf">Children Overboard affair</a>.</p>
<p>Australia thus has minimal legal and political regulation of ministerial advisers. This has led to an accountability deficit, where ministers have been able to utilise their advisers to escape responsibility for public controversies and scandals.</p>
<h2>How can we fix the system?</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bookdepository.com/Rise-Political-Advisors-Westminster-System-Yee-Fui-Ng/9780415787482">Other Westminster jurisdictions</a> have more stringent regulation of political advisers. </p>
<p>There are a few forms of regulation of advisers. The first is restrictions on the employment of advisers, either through a cap on the numbers of advisers, as in the UK, or a cap on the total budget for advisers, as in Canada. </p>
<p>Second, regulations can restrict the actions of advisers themselves. For example, in the UK, there is a prohibition on advisers leaking confidential or sensitive information, which would have been applicable in this scandal.</p>
<p>Canada has post-employment restrictions banning advisers from becoming lobbyists for five years after ceasing their employment. </p>
<p>Third, transparency measures also exist, such as requirements that departments disclose all meetings that advisers have with the media (as in the UK) and what hospitality these advisers receive (in the UK and Canada). </p>
<p>Ideally, the Australian regulatory framework should be reformed so it is policed externally from the core executive. In Canada, the conflict of interest and lobbying provisions are policed by the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, who has been independent and ready to criticise the government. </p>
<p>And, in the UK, <a href="http://www.civilservant.org.uk/library/2014_Osmotherly_Rules.pdf">the rules</a> provide for political advisers to appear before parliamentary committees. Similar guidelines could be drafted to facilitate the appearance of advisers before Australian parliamentary committees. </p>
<p>In the last 40 years, ministerial advisers have become an integral part of Australia’s system of government. But the law and rules have lagged behind, and our system should be reformed to ensure greater accountability.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yee-Fui Ng does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Australia’s minimal legal and political regulation of ministerial advisers has led to an accountability deficit.Yee-Fui Ng, Lecturer, Graduate School of Business and Law, RMIT UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/797862017-06-20T10:29:01Z2017-06-20T10:29:01ZLabor takes a political risk and opposes government’s tougher citizenship legislation<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/174690/original/file-20170620-4975-wfwr9b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Peter Dutton says changes to citizenship legislation are a modernisation that would bring Australia in line with other countries.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Lukas Coch/AAP</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The government has finally found an issue it can cast in terms of “national security” on which it can get a fight with Labor.</p>
<p>Bill Shorten usually sticks leech-like to bipartisanship on anything with even a whiff of “security”. But now the opposition has said “enough” on the proposals to toughen the criteria for people seeking citizenship.</p>
<p>In political terms, the question is whether the government can turn this into an effective wedge against Shorten, claiming he is “soft” on citizenship. Labor’s challenge is to keep the debate as one about what are reasonable conditions to place on aspiring Australians.</p>
<p>The government believes it is in tune with the mainstream; its eye to the politics was obvious when Malcolm Turnbull went out of his way to make a statement on the matter at Tuesday’s news conference on his latest energy security initiatives.</p>
<p>“The Labor Party does not value Australian citizenship enough to say, as we do, that it must be more than simply the outcome of an administrative tick-and-flick form-filling process,” Turnbull said. Immigration Minister Peter Dutton invokes national security and claimed Shorten has been “mugged by the left of his party”.</p>
<p>The proposed legislation requires potential citizens to have a higher English proficiency than at present. Additionally, the applicant will need to have lived in Australia as a permanent resident for at least four years (just one at present).</p>
<p>There will be a defined process to assess a person’s commitment to Australian values, helped by the longer residency requirement; people will have to show what they’ve done to integrate into the community.</p>
<p>The immigration minister will acquire the power to override decisions of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal on citizenship, subject to a court appeal.</p>
<p>Labor is opposing the bill as a whole; it wants it referred to a Senate inquiry, and says that then, if it considers there are parts worth supporting, it would ask the government to bring them back in separate legislation.</p>
<p>Aware Labor is treading on potentially dangerous ground, citizenship spokesman Tony Burke is trying to fireproof it. “Don’t lie and pretend something is national security when it is not,” he said.</p>
<p>The opposition is challenging in particular the longer qualifying period and the harder English test.</p>
<p>The government has a case with the former; comparable countries make residents wait between five and eight years before applying for citizenship. It is on more dubious ground on English testing, where the standard is to be raised to “competent”.</p>
<p>This is a level where the person has “an effective command of the language despite some inaccuracies, inappropriate usage and misunderstandings. They can use and understand fairly complex language, particularly in familiar situations.”</p>
<p>Burke pointed out that the questions now asked of those seeking citizenship are in a test “which is written in English. If you can’t speak English, you can’t pass the test.”</p>
<p>He warned the new requirement would “guarantee there will be a group of permanent residents who live here their entire lives and are never invited to take allegiance to Australia and are never able to be told by the Australian government: ‘you belong’. That is a fundamental change in our country.”</p>
<p>While it is desirable, not least for their own benefit, to have aspiring citizens acquire good English, people can also be excellent citizens even though their English language will always be poor. Many of us know people like that.</p>
<p>One motive for upping the English requirement might be fears about inward-looking communities. But insisting on the proposed level of English proficiency makes for a very un-level playing field, discriminating against those from certain countries.</p>
<p>Immigrants should be encouraged to become citizens – surely that is likely to be a positive for national security because it promotes a more unified nation. A “two-class” situation in the migrant/refugee population, where some can’t make the cut because of the language issue, is not what we want.</p>
<p>Dutton dismisses Labor’s concerns about the longer qualifying period and the harder language test.</p>
<p>Possibly wearing a focus group on his sleeve, he says: “The Australian public wants to see an increase in the English language requirement, they want to see people meet Australian laws and Australian values”.</p>
<p>There have been mild concerns in Coalition ranks about people who are about to qualify for citizenship under current rules but will face waiting longer. Dutton has told colleagues to bring him any particular cases.</p>
<p>If the government is playing politics with its citizenship move, Labor will have its eye on what might be opportunities on the ground.</p>
<p>These changes won’t be popular with some in ethnic communities, where Labor seeks votes.</p>
<p>On the other hand, some of those who’ve entered the citizenship tent can be less than sympathetic to aspirants.</p>
<p>The government may get the legislation through regardless of Labor’s stand, via the crossbench. If so, the opposition would have to decide whether it would undertake to alter the law if it won the election, or just move right on.</p>
<iframe src="https://www.podbean.com/media/player/icjdu-6b9a25?from=site&skin=1&share=1&fonts=Helvetica&auto=0&download=0" height="100" width="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player"></iframe><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79786/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The government has finally found an issue it can cast in terms of “national security” on which it can get a fight with Labor. Bill Shorten usually sticks leech-like to bipartisanship on anything with even…Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/540552016-02-02T06:52:21Z2016-02-02T06:52:21ZPolitics podcast: Tony Burke on Labor’s fiscal challenge<p>In the first Politics Podcast for 2016, Michelle Grattan and Shadow Finance Minister Tony Burke discuss the challenging gap between government revenue and spending, and what Labor would do to address the problem.</p>
<p>Burke pitches Labor’s recent education announcements as being central to its economic vision, describing them as a “strategic economic investment” in what Australia will need post the mining boom. </p>
<p>He also responds to the divisions in Labor over GST changes, and the need to ensure Australia maintains its triple-A credit rating. Asked about Treasury Secretary John Fraser’s high-profile speech last week, Burke is complimentary.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54055/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>In the first Politics Podcast for 2016, Michelle Grattan and Tony Burke discuss the challenging gap between government revenue and spending.Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.