Ahead of this weekend’s federal election, the Labor party has unveiled a juicy new Arts policy, pledging to allocate over $30 million into the Australian arts and music industries if they form government after the election.
The ‘Funding Creative Australia’ talk that was live streamed to social media from Melbourne’s Espy featured live music performances and speakers from different creative fields, to highlight the importance of Australia’s music, arts and culture industries.
Funding Creative Australia: Opposition leader Bill Shorten announced the new funding plan at Melbourne’s Espy over the weekend, pledging increased funding for the music and arts sectors, as well as for the ABC and Indigenous arts.
Shorten announced the new arts funding plan on Saturday, allocating a tantalizing $20 million to the Australian Live Music Fund to support music venues, hotels, restaurants, cafes, festivals, precinct events, and musicians.
Labor has also pledged that Sounds Australia will receive over $10 million to boost music exports, and the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR) will score $2.1 million for their mentorship programs. A million dollars each year for five years was also pledged to NFP Support Act to fund its life-saving services and to help form a mental health program for music industry workers.
Bill Shorten also focused on Indigenous music, arts, and culture in their funding plan, opening his statement saying “how lucky are we in Australia that for 60 to 70 thousand years of continuous connection to country, we’ve got the greatest tradition of storytelling of any nation, of any continent in the world. I pay my respects to our First Nations people” and later pledging to allocate $3 million to existing First Nations’ theatre companies and dance groups.
Shorten has also promised that a vote for Labor is a vote to save the ABC, guaranteeing to reverse Liberal’s funding cuts, setting aside an extra $40 million for the ABC, as well as $20 million to go to SBS.
Watch the full video via Bill Shorten’s twitter page below.
LIVE from the Espy: Launching Labor’s National Cultural Policy – Creative Australia. https://t.co/IWCuAzsJWF
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) May 11, 2019
The Federal Election will be held this Saturday the 18th of May, so don’t forget to get to your nearest voting centre and place your votes.
