Tuesday, 4 March 2025

Arts sector support

Gabrielle DE VIETRI (Richmond) (19:15): (1037) My adjournment is for the Minister for Creative Industries, and I ask that the government trial a living wage for artists. Art is inherently political. It challenges us, connects us and helps us see things from a different perspective. It investigates, uncovers, teaches and builds communities. Imagine a world where artists are silenced or where they are defunded or cancelled for expressing a political opinion that the media and the government of the day do not agree with. Well, that world has become a reality, and the arts are under threat.

Antoinette Lattouf, Jayson Gillham, Omar Sakr, Jinghua Qian and now Khaled Sabsabi are just a handful of high-profile examples of censorship made by major government-funded bodies. They are not the only ones. People of colour or people who express non-western perspectives of political conflicts or who stand up against Israel’s genocide of Palestinians are the ones targeted by this shameless censorship. Most recently the National Gallery of Australia censored Pacific Indigenous art collective SaVĀge K’lub’s work by forcing them to cover the Palestinian flag on their tapestry or remove their work from exhibition.

It is clear that political and creative expression is under threat. Artists who depend on cultural institutions for a platform for their livelihood are being pressured to censor their work or lose opportunities. Artists should not be punished for telling the truth or being too political. Board members of organisations helicoptered in from executive corporate roles and high net worth families should not have the power to decide what art can be seen and what should be cancelled. Attacks from the far right and from the Herald Sun were once seen as a badge of honour for artists, but now they can be a death sentence. To maintain artists’ autonomy, diversity, courage and authenticity, arts funding must be at arm’s length from the government and must be in enough supply that artists are not so desperate for funding that they are working with one hand constantly tied behind their backs. That is why the Greens are pushing for a living wage for artists, to ensure that artists can thrive no matter what, without political interference. Provide artists with a basic wage so they have the security to experiment and fail and the courage to provide a better vision for a world that is, frankly, going down the gurgler.