As old as the hills and as young as tomorrow - an unexpected insight into a hidden regional Australia

On a short regional road trip to Victoria, I stumbled across something unexpected – a nod back to my past and a taste of an Australia as old as the hills and, at the same time, as young as tomorrow. At a local food and wine festival I encountered Dark Emu dark lager, a collaboration between renowned author Bruce Pascoe and local brewery, Sailors Grave, which uses the seeds from the native grasses Bruce has been reintroducing after hundreds of years.

This week I’ve been in Inverloch in regional Victoria. While we were there we went to the Village Feast, organised by the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, and joined the crowds eating, drinking and listening to music. For the last three years the Festival has been expanding into Victorian regional areas and this year it was the turn of Inverloch.

The Sailors Grave Brewery stall at the Inverloch Village feast.

The local produce was terrific – what's not to like about cheese and wine, especially when it's particularly likeable. Chef and presenter Adam Liaw was there, looking every bit as personable as he comes across on television. 

When one door closes, a window opens – moving on from another failed referendum

Looking forward from the failed referendum on The Voice to Parliament, everyone seems to be talking about how to find some positives after the result. It’s definitely time for a lot of thinking and rethinking. As I digest the result, I’m thinking about what it all means. There's quite a bit to say and it’s definitely time for thoughtful length rather than the slogans and catch phrases we’ve endured over the last few months. Despite the setback, lots of change is still happening. From my personal experience working alongside the community languages activists for some 15 years as they laboured to revive and maintain their First Nations languages there are many specific examples of positive changes. I can't see a failed referendum stopping their work. Their positive and practical spirit had a deep impact on me. These were people building an Australia for the future, drawing on the best parts of the past and overcoming the worst. They were some of the most impressive people I have ever met. I still remain close to many of them and I will remember them to my dying day.

Change at the level of Parliament and the Constitution seems – as has almost always been the case – to be too hard for Australians. The problem is that whenever any change to deal with the complexities of the modern world is proposed, big money is unleashed to protect power and privilege. As Bob Dylan observed ‘money doesn't talk, it swears.’ On top of those who weren't convinced of the merits of the proposal anyway, I suppose the outcome is not that surprising.

Shortage of knowledge and bullshit detectors
Too many Australians didn't have the knowledge of Australian history, of Indigenous communities or of how Government works. More importantly they didn't have enough of the learned critical skills to see through the expensive marketing campaigns, so they ended up marketing victims. It used to be said that Australians had an inbuilt bullshit detector, but that itself is the biggest piece of bullshit I've heard.

Mixed interpretations from The Treaty of Waitangi on display in Te Papa Tongarewa, the national museum of New Zealand in Wellington, show how in these sort of matters messaging is critical. Will the failure of the Voice to Parliament referendum reinforce calls for a treaty instead? It involves a much longer timeframe but has potentially far more wide-reaching implications.

Yet, despite this, lots of change is still happening. From my personal experience there are many specific examples of positive change, quite a few which come down to the community languages organisations, at both local level with dual naming, but also nationally through the work of First Languages Australia.

Alive and kicking – childrens songs in first languages take culture into future

For many years I managed the Australian Government cultural program that supported the maintenance and revival of Indigenous languages – the languages unique to Australia. The community languages over-achievers I met in those years demonstrated that there has always been an inextricable connection between language and music and song. In the case of the many hundreds of community languages spoken in Australia before European settlement, this has always been true. There is a long history of music and song in First Nations cultures and communities and increasingly contemporary musicians have been performing and recording songs in First Nations languages. When music and song featuring First Nations languages is specifically by and for children, we start to see the face of the future. This is not a story only of relevance to First Nations communities. Why it is important to everyone is that it shows how focused community activity can be a major force for good and can underpin a broader, richer Australian culture.

Recording songs in First Nations languages has been an established practice for some time now. Who can forget hearing the words in one of the Yolngu languages in the ground-breaking song ‘Treaty for the first time? Whole albums by the great Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu were almost completely in language – Yolngu languages such as Gaalpu, Gumatj or Djambarrpuynu, a dialect related to Gumatj – with only a sprinkling of English.
 

Young Yolngu musicians practicing at Garma Festival, East Arnhem Land, 2008

 

Taken off
In recent years, though, it has really taken off, with many performers, such as Shellie Morris and the Borroloola Songwomen (featuring the Yanuwa, Garrawa, Mara and Guanji languages of the Borroloola region) releasing albums in their community language, part of a wider international trend. As a Sydney Morning Herald article points out other musicians to record songs in language include ARIA-nominated singer and songwriter Gumbaynggirr woman Emma Donovan, Emily Wurramara, Baker Boy, Budjerah, DRMNGNOW, Christine Anu and King Stingray, to name just a few. This has built on a long tradition of singing and music featuring First Nations languages.

First Nations performers have also taken and transformed songs originally written in English. Mitch Tambo’s performance of the much-loved unofficial national anthem ‘You’re the Voice’ in Gamilaraay at the Fire Fight Australia concert – alongside its original singer, Johnny Farnham, and Olivia Newton-John and Brian May of Queen no less – is a recent high profile example.

Who we are and where we come from – end to the rot in our national cultural institutions?

After a hiatus of ten long years Australia finally has a new national cultural policy that maps out what the current Albanese Government plans to do in support of Australian culture and creativity. At first glance the new policy appears to be an arts policy, rather than a broader cultural policy, but on closer scrutiny it is connected to far wider initiatives. Part of a series of three articles that consider different aspects of the cultural policy, this article looks at the boost to the national collecting institutions which collect and safeguard Australia's cultural heritage, outlining how after decades of damage from the so-called efficiency dividend, these institutions, amongst our most important publically-owned assets, might just have been saved. The first article looks at the policy generally and outlines some of the major components it will deliver. The second article is about the connection between the policy and broader social and economic features, such as the cultural economy and First Nations economic development.

Finally, after decades of neglect, this Government has seen fit to start to address the dire state of our national cultural institutions. These are the publically-owned institutions which belong to the Australia people and which play a crucial national role in supporting and preserving Australia’s culture and heritage. Yet over decades their work has been steadily and stealthily crippled by the operation of the ‘efficiency dividend’ the 1.25 per cent annual levy introduced in 1987 by the Hawke government and continued by Government under both major parties ever since.

This is an automatic bureaucratic mechanism which through its cumulative impact cuts support for the work of the organisations at the very time it needs to be expanded to service the growing needs of an expanding population and economy – it is about everything but efficiency. This was a crucial issue recognised by Arts Minister Crean at the time of the last national cultural policy. 

The National Film and Sound Archive, one of nine national collecting institutions which received a funding boost in the 2023-24 Budget as part of the delivery of the new national cultural policy.

Much of what is happening to these national organisations is also occurring at state level to state cultural institutions of national significance. The disappointing and badly thought through changes to the once-mighty Powerhouse Museum are a good example. These organisations are very different to Government departments, which have much more room to adjust to major cuts. They have very specific requirements to operate effectively, including a body of highly specialised expertise, with staff with long-established international and national professional networks to facilitate their roles.

The whole picture – an arts and cultural policy for everyone and everything

After a hiatus of ten long years Australia finally has a new national cultural policy that maps out what the current Albanese Government plans to do in support of Australian culture and creativity. At first glance the new policy appears to be an arts policy, rather than a broader cultural policy, but on closer scrutiny it is connected to far wider initiatives. Part of a series of three articles that consider different aspects of the cultural policy, this second one is about the connection between the policy and broader social and economic features, such as the cultural economy and First Nations economic development. The first one looks at the policy generally and outlines some of the major components it will deliver. The third article looks at the boost to the national collecting institutions which collect and safeguard Australia's cultural heritage.

The new national cultural policy is big, but is it big enough to encompass all those parts of Australian society and economy that are connected to and influenced by creativity and culture? It is crucial for the success of the policy that it stretches far beyond the arts sector. Burke has stressed the broader remit of the policy. Before the policy was released he made a profound point – even if it should be obvious, but usually isn’t. Stressing the importance of the policy, he said: ‘This is not just an arts policy. Cultural policy, when you get it right, affects how you run your health policy. It affects how you run your veterans affairs policy, it affects your industrial relations policy, it affects how you conduct your trade and your foreign affairs.’ 

 Joining the cultural economy dots: wedding dress and underskirt worn by Miranda Tapsell in the film Top End Wedding, exhibited in the Piinpi touring exhibition at the National Museum of Australia (originally curated by Bendigo Art Gallery). The piece is a collaboration between print designer Bede Tungutalum, joint founder of Tiwi Design, designer Heather Wallace and costume maker Robyn Trott.

Missed opportunity
When Burke was Shadow Minister for Arts and also Multicultural Affairs I noted repeatedly that he was in the ideal position to connect the innovative power of cultural diversity to the Opposition’s promised new cultural policy. Unfortunately this new policy misses an important opportunity to highlight this crucial feature of contemporary Australian society and culture and its implications for economic resilience and innovation. However, in this Government Burke now has another role, that of Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations, and he is doing with that position exactly what I had hoped he would do with Multicultural Affairs – connect the dots, as Simon Crean used to say repeatedly.

Time to revive with renewed national cultural policy

After a hiatus of ten long years Australia finally has a new national cultural policy that maps out what the current Albanese Government plans to do in support of Australian culture and creativity. The previous policy, announced by the Gillard Labor Government in 2013, was a very good policy, even though it had its gaps, but its impact was cut short by what turned out to be a series of Governments that managed to steadily become worse the longer they were in office. At first glance the new policy appears to be an arts policy, rather than a broader cultural policy, but on closer scrutiny it is connected to far wider initiatives, including some that have never been included in a cultural policy before. Part of a series of three articles that consider different aspects of the cultural policy, this first one looks at the policy generally and outlines some of the major components it will deliver. The second article is about the connection between the policy and broader social and economic features, such as the cultural economy and First Nations economic development. The third article looks at the boost to the national collecting institutions which collect and safeguard Australia's cultural heritage.

While I was away in New Zealand in February and March this year I saw that on 30 January 2023 the Albanese Labor Government and its Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, had released ‘Revive’, its new National Cultural Policy. According to the release material, it’s ‘a 5-year plan to renew and revive Australia's arts, entertainment and cultural sector. It delivers new momentum so that Australia's creative workers, organisations and audiences continue to thrive and grow, and so that our arts, culture and heritage are re-positioned as central to Australia's future.’ With the announcement of the 2023-24 Budget, which will help deliver the new policy, it's timely to consider it in more detail.

The new national cultural policy may not be the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, but it is important and it fills a ten-year gap since the last national cultural policy. It provides a vision and framework that maps out what the Albanese Government will do to support and foster arts, creativity and culture.

 ‘It is of special interest to me since I was the director of the taskforce that co-ordinated the production of the last one under the previous Labor Government back in 2012. Even though it had its gaps, that was a very good policy, with its impact cut short by what turned out to be a series of Governments that managed to steadily become worse the longer they were in office.’

As I noted at the time, it is of special interest to me since I was the director of the taskforce that co-ordinated the production of the last one under the previous Labor Government back in 2012. Even though it had its gaps, that was a very good policy, with its impact cut short by what turned out to be a series of Governments that managed to steadily become worse the longer they were in office.

Too soon to tell - is the Powerhouse Museum saved and what happens next?

Over the years I have written several articles about the decline of the once mighty Powerhouse Museum, one of the gems of Sydney and an internationally renowned institution. It was steadily undermined by a State government more at ease with pork-barrelling the suburbs it had long neglected than fostering a great museum and major tourist attraction. Rather than extending and upgrading the museum into the Western suburbs, it seemed intent on establishing a de facto entertainment and functions centre in Parramatta. Now, with a new State Government, that all may have changed.

My next planned article was going to be about the recently announced new national cultural policy of the Albanese Labor Government, but with the Powerhouse issue raising its head again, I thought I’d publish something now. The article about the national cultural policy will follow soon.

The view of the Catalina flying boat from the mezzanine floor above - the former Members Lounge where I used to work from 1995 to 2000.

Hope of end to a debacle
Hopefully, with the election of the Minns Labor Government in NSW, there may be some hope of an end to this embarrassing debacle with the Museum, though there are no guarantees. What is clear is that whatever happens next is under close scrutiny. There is plenty of room to enhance the Powerhouse – however care needs to be taken not to throw the baby out with the bathwater. It's also important not to lose a once in a lifetime opportunity – decoupled from the Parramatta option – to make the Powerhouse truly the great museum it could be. For example here has long been an ambition to turn the Museum around so it is no longer limited to an entrance from busy Harris Street in Ultimo and instead connects to Darling Harbour – despite all the limitations of that precinct.

I include extracts from a breaking update distributed on behalf of the broad alliance that has been battling for years to reverse this policy failure and halt the sad decline of the Museum.

Travelling light – a cultural journey through the Shaky Isles

I’ve been to Aotearoa New Zealand only twice before – once on a brief stop in Auckland on the way to Tahiti in 2014 and then on a longer trip around the North Island at the end of 2016. On the first trip my fellow traveller was in New Zealand because she wanted to visit Tahiti, whereas I was in Tahiti because I wanted to visit New Zealand. On the second visit in 2016, we had planned to continue on to the South Island – till it became clear this would be biting off more than we could chew. A driving journey on two islands was one island too many. Then, almost seven years later, including three years of global pandemic, ducking and weaving to avoid the virus, our 2016 trip was finally about to resume. New Zealand is close to Australia but for the last few years it has been far away. At times during our visit I had to stop and remind myself that we were really there.

From my experience as far as Aotearoa New Zealand is concerned, it seems Australians fall into two groups – those who have been there and want to go back and those who would like to go there. I’ve long had a sense of the significance of New Zealand for our region and our own country. New Zealand is much more connected to the Pacific than Australia. The fact the North island has been described as the largest Polynesian island in the Pacific is possibly part of the reason. It’s only an accident of history that the two islands that make up New Zealand are one country – conceivably they could just as easily have been two. How different that could have been.

Art wall in Britomart, the old transformed dockland area of Auckland.

I’ve said before that Australians used to joke that going to New Zealand was like travelling back to the 1950s. That might be true in some respects, but in other ways it’s like travelling to a country Australia might want to become sometime in the future.

Absent without leave - ocean crossing in an (almost) post-pandemic world

I’ve been a little out of touch with what’s been happening in the world of Australian creativity and culture because for all of February and early March this year I was visiting Aotearoa New Zealand, on a journey that originally started in November 2016 and was then resumed over six years later. While I was away the Labor Government announced its new National Cultural Policy and soon after I arrived back I received bad news of a loss from the tight group of friends and colleagues who had helped form my cultural world-view so many decades earlier – when we spoke the language of community, the language of culture and the language of changing the world for the better.

All at sea in a floating library
I started my trip in a floating library, that is on a Viking cruise from Sydney to Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Viking ships are full of quiet corners crammed with books, a welcome way to pass time at sea – when not in a Scandinavian spa and sauna and pool unlike anything else I’ve ever seen. The cruise was originally a river cruise from Amsterdam up the Rhine to Basel in 2020, before the world went to shit. It was meant to follow my first ever cruise – from London to the furthest point North in Norway, way above the Arctic Circle, then down to beautiful Bergen. As the global pandemic rolled on, this follow up voyage was postponed several times and finally converted to a cruise to New Zealand when Viking started to operate in Southern waters. It was certainly a superb way to travel to New Zealand.

 

From the time when everyone played in a garage band and was famous amongst a few people they knew for all of five minutes. Of course we wrote our own songs. In our day jobs we were even more serious.

In an inspired move on the way to Melbourne I had booked the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria. I walked off the ship and headed into the city to see it. It was popular and packed and I wore my face mask throughout, but it was excellent and not-to-be-missed.

All at sea in a floating library

I’m a little out of touch with what’s happening in the world of Australian creativity and culture because I’m in a floating library – a Viking cruise from Sydney to Aotearoa New Zealand. The ship has already been in Melbourne and Hobart, tonight we arrive in Christchurch.

In an inspired move I had booked the Alexander McQueen exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria, in case I don’t get back to Melbourne before it finishes. I walked off the ship and headed into the city to see it. It was popular and packed and I wore my face mask throughout, but it was excellent and not-to-be-missed. I hadn’t been to Melbourne for ages – since 2019, before the you-know-what began.

Innovator and designer Alexander McQueen lives again at National Gallery of Victoria

Last night I found myself sitting near Tom Ward, a young Tasmanian guitarist who is performing on the cruise. He has played all around the world, including with other performers like Tommy Emmanuel, and was Tasmanian Composer of the Year. He talked about how musicians had been effected by the COVID-19 pandemic and what he’d done to survive and how bad Spotify was for musos. He mentioned that he knew many musicians who had released dozens of recordings but had given up performing and recording completely due to the pandemic and the patchy support the creative sector had received during it.

A couple of days ago I saw that the Australian Government had finally released its new National Cultural Policy. I’ve had a quick glance at it but I will read it more closely and comment further. It is of extra interest to me since I was the director of the taskforce that co-ordinated the production of the last one under the previous Labor Government back in 2012.

 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.

 

Beyond a joke – surviving troubled times 
‘We live in troubled times – but then can anyone ever say that they lived in times that weren’t troubled? For most of my life Australia has suffered mediocre politicians and politics – with the odd brief exceptions – and it seems our current times are no different. Australia has never really managed to realise its potential. As a nation it seems to be two different countries going in opposite directions – one into the future and the other into the past. It looks as though we’ll be mired in this latest stretch of mediocrity for some time and the only consolation will be creativity, gardening and humour’, Beyond a joke – surviving troubled times.  

‘indefinite article’ on Facebook – short arts updates and commentary

‘Short arts updates and irreverent cultural commentary 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’, 'indefinite article' on Facebook.

 

Second bite of the cherry - revisiting a national cultural policy
‘When the last national cultural policy was being finalised in 2012, more than 43% of the Australian population or at least one of their parents were born overseas. Now, as its successor is being developed after a cultural policy vacuum of more than nine years, that figure has been superseded, with over half the population or at least one of their parents born overseas. This makes a strong focus on the dynamic promise of our cultural diversity essential for any successful policy. Unfortunately, the main shortcoming of the previous policy was that it didn’t make this focus as strong as it needed to be, which was a pity because the policy was otherwise very good and comprehensive’, Second bite of the cherry - revisiting a national cultural policy.

My nephew just got a job with Weta – the long road of the interconnected world 18 Jul 2015
‘My nephew just got a job in Wellington New Zealand with Weta Digital, which makes the digital effects for Peter Jackson’s epics. Expertise, specialist skills and industry pockets can occur just about anywhere, as long as you have connectivity, talent and a framework of support that makes it possible. This is part of the new knowledge economy of the future, with its core of creative industries and its links to our cultural landscape. Increasingly the industries of the future are both clever and clean. At their heart are the developing creative industries which are based on the power of creativity and are a critical part of Australia’s future – innovative, in most cases centred on small business and closely linked to the profile of Australia as a clever country, both domestically and internationally. This is transforming the political landscape of Australia, challenging old political franchises and upping the stakes in the offerings department’, My nephew just got a job with Weta – the long road of the interconnected world.

Cool little capital - the ambition to make Canberra Australia's creative city
‘Arts policy in the ACT has been more miss than hit, even though intentions have been good and there have been some worthwhile achievements. Unfortunately often the achievements don’t seem to have sprung from an overall vision of a consolidated strategic policy, which has meant that their full value hasn’t been harnessed. There has been a history of consultation stalling and not producing fruitful results. However, the ambition is currently there and building on some of the previous work, there may finally be a policy that focuses support for the arts and links it to the broader landscape of culture and creativity, if only all the interlinked components can be recognised and implemented’, Cool little capital – the ambition to make Canberra Australia's creative city.

National Cultural Policy rises from dead to boost Australian arts, culture and creativity

‘A change in national Government means that much of the daily work of Government in keeping the country running continues as before, eased along by the continuity provided by the public service. However, there can also be drastic changes of direction and fresh starts and old and tested ideas reinvigorated. One area where this will certainly be the case is with Government support for Australian arts, culture and creativity, with consultation to update the policies in Creative Australia, the previous National Cultural Policy, getting underway without delay’, National Cultural Policy rises from the dead to boost Australian arts, culture and creativity.

Labor election victory means renewed approach for Australian arts and culture support 
‘Almost a decade of Coalition Government has ended, with a complex and ground-breaking result. During that long period the substantial and detailed work to develop a national cultural policy under the Rudd and then Gillard Labor Governments was sidelined. A strategic, comprehensive, long-term approach to support by national Government for Australian culture and creativity in its broadest sense was largely absent. Now we are likely to see a return – finally – to some of the central principles that underpinned ‘Creative Australia’, the blueprint that represented the Labor Government response to Australia’s creative sector’, Labor election victory means renewed approach for Australian arts and culture support.

Why Australia still needs a cultural policy – third time lucky?
‘It’s no longer the pre-election campaign we had to have. It’s become the election campaign we can’t avoid. We are spiralling inexorably towards election day and Ministers and members have been plummeting from the heights of the Coalition Government like crew abandoning a burning Zeppelin. We may wake on 19 May to find we have a national Labor Government. With Labor pledging to implement an updated version of the short-lived ‘Creative Australia’, its national cultural policy, first promised by the Rudd Government, it’s a good time to reconsider its importance’, Why Australia still needs a cultural policy – third time lucky?

Why cultural diversity is central to Australia’s future promise – a refocused Labor arts policy?
‘Can Australia successfully navigate the treacherous and confusing times in which we live? Understanding the crucial importance of our cultural diversity to our cultural, social and economic future will be essential. Applying that in the policies and practices that shape our future at all levels across Australia can ensure we have a bright, productive and interesting 21st Century. An important part of this are the political parties, major and minor, that are increasingly negotiating the compromises that shape our world. The recent launch by the Labor Party of a new group, Labor for the Arts, could be an important development. Combining as it does a focus from an earlier time on both arts and multiculturalism, it could potentially open the way for some innovative and forward-thinking policy’, Understanding why cultural diversity is central to Australia’s future promise – a refocused Labor arts policy?

Changing the landscape of the future – a new focus on cultural rights
‘The arts and culture sector has spent far too many years pressing the case for why Australian culture is crucial to Australia’s future, without seeming to shift the public policy landscape to any great degree. Perhaps a proposed fresh approach focusing on cultural rights may offer some hope of a breakthrough. What makes this approach so important and so potentially productive is that it starts with broad principles, linked to fundamental issues, such as human rights, which makes it a perfect foundation for the development of sound and well-thought out policies – something that currently we sadly lack’, Changing the landscape of the future – a new focus on cultural rights.

What is art good for? Understanding the value of our arts and culture
‘With arts and cultural support increasingly under pressure, arts and cultural organisations and artists are trying to find ways in their own localities to respond and to help build a popular understanding of the broader social and economic benefits of arts and culture. Much work has been done in Australia and internationally to understand, assess and communicate the broad value of arts and culture. The challenge is to share and to apply what already exists – and to take it further’, What is art good for? Understanding the value of our arts and culture.

Putting culture on the main agenda – the power of policy
‘With the ongoing malaise due to the absence of national arts and cultural policy in Australia, it's worth reminding ourselves what beneficial impact good policy can have. To understand the power of policy to make an impact in the world, it’s worthwhile contrasting two recent major Australian Government cultural policies – the National Cultural Policy and the National Indigenous Languages Policy. This helps illuminate how cultural policy can promote the long view, innovation, breadth and leadership. Both policies showed that more important than funding or specific initiatives was the overall strategic vision and the way in which it attempted to place culture not just on the main agenda, but somewhere near the centre of the main agenda’, Putting culture on the main agenda – the power of policy.

Flight of the wild geese – Australia’s place in the world of global talent
‘As the global pandemic has unfolded, I have been struck by how out of touch a large number of Australians are with Australia’s place in the world. Before the pandemic many Australians had become used to travelling overseas regularly – and spending large amounts of money while there – but we seem to think that our interaction with the global world is all about discretionary leisure travel. In contrast, increasingly many Australians were travelling – and living – overseas because their jobs required it. Whether working for multinational companies that have branches in Australia or Australian companies trying to break into global markets, Australian talent often needs to be somewhere else than here to make the most of opportunities for Australia. Not only technology, but even more importantly, talent, will be crucial to the economy of the future’, Flight of the wild geese – Australia’s place in the world of global talent. 

 

Cut to the bone – the accelerating decline of our major cultural institutions and its impact on Australia’s national heritage and economy
‘I always thought that long after all else has gone, after government has pruned and prioritised and slashed and bashed arts and cultural support, the national cultural institutions would still remain. They are one of the largest single items of Australian Government cultural funding and one of the longest supported and they would be likely to be the last to go, even with the most miserly and mean-spirited and short sighted of governments. However, in a finale to a series of cumulative cuts over recent years, they have seen their capabilities to carry out their essential core roles eroded beyond repair. The long term impact of these cumulative changes will be major and unexpected, magnifying over time as each small change reinforces the others. The likelihood is that this will lead to irreversible damage to the contemporary culture and cultural heritage of the nation at a crucial crossroads in its history’, Cut to the bone – the accelerating decline of our major cultural institutions and its impact on Australia’s national heritage and economy.

 

Crossing boundaries – the unlimited landscape of creativity
‘When I was visiting Paris last year, there was one thing I wanted to do before I returned home – visit the renowned French bakery that had trained a Melbourne woman who had abandoned the high stakes of Formula One racing to become a top croissant maker. She had decided that being an engineer in the world of elite car racing was not for her, but rather that her future lay in the malleable universe of pastry. Crossing boundaries of many kinds and traversing the borders of differing countries and cultures, she built a radically different future to the one she first envisaged’, Crossing boundaries – the unlimited landscape of creativity.

Contemporary Indigenous fashion – where community culture and economics meet

‘The recent exhibition 'Piinpi', about contemporary Indigenous fashion, has a significance for Australian culture that is yet to be fully revealed. The themes covered by the exhibition are important because they demonstrate the intersection of the culture of First Nations communities with creative industries and the cultural economy. In attempting to address the major issue of Indigenous disadvantage, for example, it is critical to recognise that one of the most important economic resources possessed by First Nations communities is their culture. Through the intellectual property that translates it into a form that can generate income in a contemporary economy, that culture is pivotal to jobs and to income. It may not be mining but it mines a far richer seam – authentic and rich content that has already been recognised internationally for its high value, just like our iron and coal. At a time when First Nations communities are talking increasingly about gaining greater control over their economic life, this is highly relevant’, Contemporary Indigenous fashion – where community culture and economics meet. 

Understanding the economy of the future - innovation and its place in the knowledge economy, creative economy, creative industries and cultural economy 

‘When we start to think about the economy of the future – and the clean and clever jobs that make it up – we encounter a confusing array of ideas and terms. Innovation, the knowledge economy, the creative economy, creative industries and the cultural economy are all used, often interchangeably. Over the years my own thinking about them has changed and I thought it would be useful to try to clarify how they are all related’, Understanding the economy of the future – innovation and its place in the knowledge economy, creative economy, creative industries and cultural economy.  

Broader and deeper - the creativity and culture of everyday life
‘The Impact and Enterprise post-graduate course at the University of Canberra course is unique in Australia in placing creative industries and the creative and cultural economy in the broader landscape of the wider impacts of creativity and culture - both economic and social. It starts from the premise that what the broader social and economic roles of creativity and culture have in common is that a focus on the economic role of creativity and culture is similar to the focus on its community role – both spring from recognition that creativity and culture are integral to everyday life and the essential activities that make it up. In March 2021, as the course entered its third year, I gave a talk to the students about where it came from,’ Broader and deeper - the creativity and culture of everyday life.

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.

Arts, culture and a map of the future – the limits of arts policy
‘In the arts, from a virtual policy-free zone, we’ve now got policies – not as many as we could have hoped, but enough to be going on with. Some of them might even get implemented. Importantly, the others will help to frame the debate and offer ideas for the future. Those parties that have arts policies offer good solid and productive proposals which, if implemented, would lead to definite improvement for Australia’s arts and culture. However, that’s just the starting point’, Arts, culture and a map of the future – the limits of arts policy.

Election mode for Australian arts and culture – a policy-free zone?
‘A policy and the understanding of issues that leads to its adoption, provides arts and culture with a stature that underpins funding by providing a rationale for support. Otherwise funding will always be ad  hoc and insecure, piecemeal, project-based, intermittent and at the mercy of whim and fashion. We have to get arts and culture to the stage where it is seen like public health or education and debated accordingly’, Election mode for Australian arts and culture – a policy-free zone?

Arts funding – it’s not all about the money
‘National Arts Minister, Mitch Fifield, has said that being a strong advocate for the arts doesn’t mean delivering government funding and that an arts Minister or a government shouldn’t be judged just on the  quantum of money the government puts in. This sidesteps the Government’s very real problems that it has muddied the waters of existing arts funding, cutting many worthwhile organisations loose with no reason, that rather than delivering arts funding, it has reduced it significantly, and that it has no coherent strategy or policy to guide its arts decisions or direction. The real issue is that a national framework, strategy or policy for arts and culture support underpins and provides a rationale for arts funding – and is far more important’, Arts funding – it’s not all about the money.

National arts policy – excelling in the mediocrity stakes
‘I am not too concerned who manages national arts funding. Both the Australia Council and the Ministry for the Arts have long managed numerous funding programs. I am more concerned about what is funded. The fact that the national pool of arts funding available to support the operational costs of smaller arts and cultural organisations has shrunk substantially is a deep concern. Watch as Australia’s arts and culture sector reels over the next five years from this exceptionally bad policy decision – and expect the early warning signs much sooner. Well- known and respected figures in the arts and culture sector have been expressing this concern sharply’, National arts policy – excelling in the mediocrity stakes.

Out from the shadows – the other Arts Minister
‘I ventured out through the dark wilds of the Australian National University to hear the Opposition Spokesperson on the Arts, Mark Dreyfus, share his view of what a contemporary arts and culture policy might look like. It was a timely moment, given the turmoil stirred up by recent changes to national arts funding arrangements and the #freethearts response from small arts and cultural organisations and artists. Luckily, as he himself noted, he has a very recent model to work with. The National Cultural Policy is little more than two years old,’ Out from the shadows – the other Arts Minister.

‘Arts’ policy and culture – let's not reinvent the wheel
‘Faced with the increasing prospect that it could become the next Australian Government, the Labor Party is reviewing its ‘arts’ policy. Whatever happens and whoever it happens to, considered and strategic discussion of arts and culture policy is critical to Australia's future.’ ‘Arts’ policy and culture – let's not reinvent the wheel.

‘Creative Nation’ – Keating's cultural legacy
‘Developing ‘Creative Australia’, the second Australian National Cultural Policy, required such focus that little was said about the first one, Keating’s ‘Creative Nation’. ‘Creative Nation’ acknowledged two distinct and very different strengths in Australian culture. The first was the contemporary diversity of Australia. The second was the economic significance of the arts and culture sector, including the creative industries. This reflected the reality of how Australia had changed in half a century. However it also reflects a different way of looking, beyond the narrow view of ‘the arts’ as a gently civilising influence on the surface of a frontier society’, ‘Creative Nation’ – Keating's cultural legacy.