Detailed Portfolio Reviews
2. COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS
2.2 Arts and Heritage Services
2.3.1 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
2.3.4 Australian Film Commission
2.3.6 National Film and Sound Archive
The Budget provides the Australian National Museum, the National Library of Australia and the Australian National Gallery less than they had received in 1995-96. The National Museum, for example, had plans for a presence at the Sydney Customs House ended and the construction stage of its Canberra facilitiy will be delayed by yet another site evaluation. In dollar terms the Australia Council, however, had a larger budget drop than any of the above institutions.
In 1995-96 the Australia Council received $72.9 million and the 1996-97 Budget provides $63.8 million-a drop of $9.1 million. $2.6 million of this fall can be accounted for by the removal and separate funding of the Australia Foundation for Culture and the Humanities. The remaining reduction in the Council's base line funding of 6% will affect the number of grant applications from arts bodies and individuals which can be accepted.
Some other budget measures within the Australia Council Sub-program effectively balance each other. The ending of the Creative Fellowships, a scheme troubled by its close association with Mr Keating, by claims that those helped were not the most in need and by allegations of a Sydney bias, is effectively balanced in the Budget with the establishing of the Emerging Artists Fellowship. The budget also included in this Sub-program some new commitments. For example, establishing of the Regional Arts Fund would seem to reflect a desire to further address the vexed issue of regional balance in arts funding.
Under the agreement with the previous government, the ABC was funded on a triennial basis (1994-95 to 1996-97), with 1994-95 the base year and funding for subsequent years indexed to the non-farm GDP deflator. The ABC was exempt from the application of Government efficiency dividend, was allowed to retain any additional revenue it generated and was not to be subject to any Departmental savings proposals. In return, the ABC itself was not to bring forward any new policy proposals requiring additional Budget outlays before the 1997-98 Budget. This funding agreement was negotiated between the Government and the Corporation, and has no statutory basis.
The National Commission of Audit noted that these funding arrangements 'provided the ABC with advantages enjoyed by few Commonwealth funded bodies' (p.198). The Commission also stated that the ABC had advised it that in the five years commencing 1997-98 it would require new capital expenditure of $210 million to digitize its production facilities and that it would be seeking partial Budget supplementation.
On the 16 July the Minister for Communications and the Arts announced a Review of the future role and functions of the ABC by Mr Bob Mansfield. He also stated that 'In examining the ABC and the very significant future funding pressures which its many activities are likely to place on the budget, the Government has decided that the current level of funding cannot continue indefinitely'. Funding for 1996-97 would be reduced by 2% (the reduction in running costs required of all Government departments and agencies) while in 1997-98 funding would reduced by $55 million. Funding levels for later years would be determined in the 1997 Budget taking into account the Mansfield Report recommendations.
It has been reported that ABC management has determined some programming changes as a result of the 1996-97 Budget cuts. For TV, documentary production would be reduced, the arts programs Sunday Afternoon and Review would be merged, news and current affairs would lose $3.5m, and Good News Week would be axed at the end of the year. For radio, metro and regional stations would lose $2.7 million of their $33 million budget, Radio National would lose $1 million of its $13 million budget, and Classic FM would lose $0.5 million of its $6 million budget. A national evening radio program and the closing down of some ABC operations in declining rural centres was also being considered (Sydney Morning Herald, 15 August 1996, p.2).
This is the first year the Australia Film Commission Sub-program includes the Television Production Fund (which in the previous year had been part of Program 1). In 1995-96 it was anticipated that the combination of the two would receive $50 million funding in 1996-97. The combined budget of $35.9 million, therefore, represents not only a drop from 1995-96 actual expenditure but an even more significant drop from what had been expected 12 months earlier. While the Government has extended funding for the Australian Film Commission's Special Production Fund, it would appear to have introduced a substantial base funding cut to the Commission and reduced the size of the TV Production Fund.
The 1995-96 Actual Expenditure was $11.6 million, slightly less than this year's Budget allocation, but the 1995-96 appropriation was $24.3 million, as it was expected that $11.6m would go towards 'long term accommodation' for the Archive. Plans for a new building did not, however, proceed during the 1995-96 financial year and have not been accommodated in this year's Budget.
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