The Senate Inquiry into the 2015-16 arts budget cuts continued in Adelaide last week. If nothing else, it provided a timely reminder that art - and the lives of artists - matter.
An important element in the success of Malcolm Turnbull’s government will be how effectively it handles the Senate. Some crossbench senators have greeted the arrival of Turnbull enthusiastically, contrasting…
If the new arts minister, Mitch Fifield, abolishes the National Program for Excellence in the Arts and diverts its funds back to the Australia Council, he will increase arts funding at no cost to the budget bottom line.
The Book Council of Australia began to take shape last week when MUP director Louise Adler was announced as its chair. But what is its purpose, and how will it embrace the industry’s new voices?
In live performance, when developing a new work and before getting to the final rehearsal period, previews and season, there is often a public showing. Enter the Senate Inquiry, stage left.
The government plans to change the law so green groups don’t automatically qualify to mount legal challenges against environmental approvals. That would make it much harder for green watchdogs to act.
How can common standards apply to a sector with so much difference? Artists must take the opportunity to sharpen their minds as well as their rhetoric. The implications of the NPEA go beyond the polemical.
Ministerial divisions have broken spectacularly into the open over whether Tony Abbott’s proposed popular vote on same-sex marriage should be a plebiscite or a constitutional referendum.
It is no criticism of Australia’s judiciary to say that it would be preferable, both for them and the public, if they took office after a more transparent process.
The Greens’ Senator Scott Ludlam said changes to arts funding will mean arts minister George Brandis won’t need to publicly disclose who he’s funding. He said it’s unbelievable – but is it true?
The federal government has to be on the back foot after a Law Reform Commission report identified that It has been the champion of many rights-limiting laws.
Allowing states to raise their own income tax and changing the way the GST is carved up are among options put in the government’s discussion paper on reform of Australia’s federation.
A motion in favour of a Senate Inquiry into the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts has been passed. What more can be done by those artists and arts organisations lobbying against unpopular changes to arts funding?
Last Friday, Attorney-General George Brandis and Immigration Minister Peter Dutton issued an extraordinary statement declaring that the president of the Human Rights Commission, Gillian Triggs, needed…
Momentum continues to build in the Australian art community’s response to changes to arts funding in last month’s budget. Is it now time for artists to consider direct action?
What is the premise of recently-announced cuts to Australia Council funding, and the establishment of a National Programme for Excellence in the Arts? There is actually a considerable evidence base from which to form policy decisions in Australian arts funding.
The arts sector has been shocked by cuts to the Australia Council – but details about the new National Program for Excellence in the Arts are in short supply. What do we know about George Brandis’s vision for the arts?
Now that women will make up 40% of High Court judges come June 2015, is gender now irrelevant? Hardly. Women have made up slightly less than 10% of all High Court judges in the court’s history.
For artists and cultural workers, a change of government leads to a change of priorities – and often, opportunities disappear. So what do we know about the priorities for the current Minister for the Arts?
The Senate has censured Attorney-General George Brandis, saying he is “unfit to hold the office”, over his behaviour in relation to Human Rights Commission President Gillian Triggs.
Honorary (Senior Fellow) School of Culture and Communication University of Melbourne. Editor in Chief, Design and Art of Australia Online, The University of Melbourne