Monday, September 7, 2020

The short answer #1: Mismanaging the future - creative sector left in the lurch again

Another one of the many ways in which the current Australian Government doesn’t understand the creative sector has been underlined by its decision to wind back the JobSeeker allowance. In the clean and clever economy of the future both the creative sector and the higher education sector will be critical - yet both have largely been abandoned by the Government.

Increasingly I wonder if the current Australian Government is up to managing an economy – much of what it is doing seems more to be dictated by neo-liberal ideology than economic merit. I can’t see how many of the ideas it is pushing ahead with will help the economy – in fact they are likely to make things worse: cutting welfare (those on welfare would spend every extra dollar they get, thereby stimulating the economy quickly); cutting taxes (those getting the tax cuts, mainly focused inevitably on higher incomes have been saving, not spending in response to the economic recession); and undermining the superannuation system (which will hit the lowest paid and most insecure, with mostly intermittent work - mainly women). On top of this they are still fixated on deregulating the workforce (creating more precarious short-term casual jobs without sick leave or other protections, which made the rapid spread of the COVID-19 virus inevitable).

Flawed stimulus packages
Even their stimulus packages seem flawed in terms of what they are supposed to achieve. During the Global Financial Crisis, the Rudd Government rolled out the roof insulation scheme, which despite its flaws, did what it needed to do. It had quick take up because it didn’t involve building and it left an overall benefit to the nation by reducing energy use. In contrast the HomeBuilder scheme is still barely underway because of all the steps needed to start work and it will leave lasting benefits only to those home owners who can access it. Direct government spending on social housing or other worthwhile community projects would be far more effective at stimulating the economy, while at the same time leaving broader social benefits to the nation from taxpayer dollars.

What started me on this path was thinking how in the economy of the future the creative sector and the higher education system will be critical. Yet it seems this Government has largely abandoned both of them and is focused on bolstering sectors like coal and gas that are rapidly being overtaken by developments with renewal energy.

Consigning much of the creative sector to poverty
Another one of the many ways in which the current Australian Government doesn’t understand the creative sector has been underlined by its decision to wind back the JobSeeker allowance. From 27 September, JobKeeper will move to a two-tier system. Workers who usually worked less than 20 hours per week pre-pandemic will receive $750 per week, while full-timers will get $1,200.

Yet many of the industries with the highest proportion of those working less than 20 hours per week are also those that have faced the tightest restrictions due to the pandemic. Industry sectors such as arts and recreation, which have been most affected by the coronavirus restrictions, are also those which have the highest share of their workforce working too few hours to be eligible for the higher JobKeeper rate.

Before the pandemic these workers would have put together a living wage by working several part-time jobs. The problem is that because of the pandemic and the restrictions to deal with it, many of the jobs they used to rely on to supplement their incomes no longer exist. The Government action is compounding its neglect of this sector by consigning much of it to poverty. 

See also

An everyday life worth living – indefinite articles for a clean, clever and creative future
‘My blog “indefinite article” is irreverent writing about contemporary Australian society, popular culture, the creative economy and the digital and online world – life in the trenches and on the beaches of the information age. Over the last ten years I have published 166 articles about creativity and culture on the blog. This is a list of all the articles I have published there, broken down into categories, with a brief summary of each article. They range from the national cultural landscape to popular culture, from artists and arts organisations to cultural institutions, cultural policy and arts funding, the cultural economy and creative industries, First Nations culture, cultural diversity, cities and regions, Australia society, government, Canberra and international issues – the whole range of contemporary Australian creativity and culture’, An everyday life worth living – indefinite articles for a clean, clever and creative future

Remaking the world we know – for better or worse
‘Given the Government cannot avoid spending enormous sums of money if it is to be in any way capable and competent, this is an unparalleled opportunity to remake Australia for the future. Usually opportunities such as this only arise in rebuilding a country and an economy after a world war. It is a perfect moment to create the sort of clean, clever and creative economy that will take us forward in the global world for the next hundred years. Unfortunately a failure of imagination and a lack of innovative ambition will probably ensure this doesn’t happen any time soon’, Remaking the world we know – for better or worse.

Music makes the world go round – the bright promise of our export future
‘After ABBA, in an unexpected break from its traditional way of building national wealth from natural resources, Sweden managed to discover a new source of income. It was not as you would expect coal or oil. Rather than oil what it had discovered was song royalties, part of a fundamental change in the nature of modern economies which transformed them from relying solely on natural resources, transport and manufacturing to make creative content a new form of resource mining. Examples like theirs point to potentially major opportunities for the Australian music industry to become a net exporter of music,’ Music makes the world go round – the bright promise of our export future.

The old normal was abnormal – survival lessons for a new riskier world
‘When I hear the call to get back to normal, I think ‘what was normal about the old normal?’ The sudden shutdown of large sectors of the economy highlighted drastically how precarious was the situation of vast chunks of Australian society, in particular but not exclusively, the creative sector. The business models implemented by the Government to help businesses survive and employees keep their jobs didn’t work at all for those who had already been happily left at – or even deliberately pushed to – the margins of society and the economy. In good times the creative sector is flexible and fast at responding. In bad times it is a disaster, as the failure of the COVID-19 support packages for the sector shows’, The old normal was abnormal – survival lessons for a new riskier world.

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