Labor promises new cultural policy ahead of election

Instead of announcing an arts policy prior to Saturday’s election, the ALP has pledged to develop a national cultural policy instead.

A new cultural policy – the first since the abolition of Creative Australia by the Abbott Government in 2013 – has been promised should Labor be elected to government this Saturday.

Such a policy would centralise First Nations art and culture; reaffirm the need for arms-length arts funding; revive cooperation between Federal, State and Local governments; and examine the potential for a national live events insurance scheme to counteract the sector’s uncertainty as Australia emerges from the pandemic.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts