Recommendations
Recommendation 1
5.8 The committee recommends that the government
develop and articulate, in consultation with the arts sector, a coherent and
clear arts policy, including priorities for arts funding supported by
evidence-based analysis, and greater clarity about the respective roles of the
Ministry for the Arts and the Australia Council, as well as the other statutory
arts bodies.
Recommendation 2
5.15 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth
government restore to the Australia Council the full amount of funds diverted from
it in the 2014 MYEFO and 2015 Budget, ensuring it has the level of resourcing
identified as necessary to implement in full its 2014 strategic plan over the
current financial year and the four-year forward estimates.
Recommendation 3
5.21 The committee recommends that, should the
Commonwealth government be unwilling or unable to identify new and additional
funds for the arts portfolio to support the Catalyst Arts and Culture Fund, the
Catalyst fund be disbanded, and the funds presently allocated to it be returned
to the Australia Council.
Recommendation 4
5.22 The committee recommends that, should the
Catalyst fund proceed, the Ministry for the Arts further develop and clarify
how the Catalyst fund will:
- complement (and not duplicate) the role of
the Australia Council;
- ensure small-to-medium organisations will be
prioritised, whether through a quota or some similar system; and
- ensure the spread of funds across the year,
given that the funding program exists on a first-in-first-served basis.
Recommendation 5
5.25 Should the Catalyst fund proceed, the committee
recommends that, in order to reduce bureaucratic duplication and ensure the
integrity of funding decisions, the peer review register and process presently
maintained by the Australia Council also be used for assessing applications to
Catalyst.
Recommendation 6
5.28 The committee recommends that the government
provide emergency transition funds in 2016 to assist small-to-medium
organisations and individual artists who have been immediately impacted by
these changes. These funds need to come from outside the existing arts funding
envelope.
Recommendation 7
5.30 The committee recommends that the Ministry for
the Arts work with the Australia Council, the state and territory governments
and the arts sector to develop and implement streamlined and coordinated grants
processes and timelines, to the greatest extent possible, in order to minimise
the administrative burden on applicants seeking funding from different bodies
and programs.
Recommendation 8
5.33 The committee recommends that the Australia
Council give careful consideration to how it may particularly prioritise
support to individual artists in its funding programs, in recognition of their
exclusion from the Catalyst fund.
Recommendation 9
5.34 The committee recommends that the Australia
Council give consideration to the viability of re-launching a specific program
for the development of early-career individual artists, along the lines of the
highly successful ArtStart program which was abandoned following the 2015
Budget.
Recommendation 10
5.38 The committee recommends that, without
compromising principles of qualitative and merit-based assessment, the Ministry
for the Arts, the Australia Council and other funding bodies continue to work
with the states and territories toward increased equity in arts funding between
the states and territories, and between urban, regional, rural and remote
communities.
Recommendation 11
5.40 The committee recommends that the government and
the Council continue ensuring that support for Australia's arts takes full
advantage of the spectacular diversity of our artists and audiences, and that
the diversity of Australian artists and people is included and represented in
decisions about arts funding, including on assessment panels.
Recommendation 12
5.42 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth
government reverse the funding cuts to Screen Australia imposed in the 2014
Budget, and refrain from implementing further cuts to film and television
funding over the forward estimates.
Recommendation 13
5.46 The committee recommends that the Commonwealth
government restore a program for funding innovation and development in
interactive gaming, whether through reinstating the Australian Interactive
Games Fund previously managed by Screen Australia, or through another
appropriate government entity.
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