Budget Review 2021–22 Index
Dr Philip Dearman
A summary of funding allocated for media, arts and sporting
industries is outlined in Budget
Strategy and Outlook: Budget Paper No. 1: 2021–22, under the
‘recreation and culture’ function, against the ‘sub-functions’ of broadcasting,
arts and cultural heritage, and sport and recreation (p. 180).
Table 1 shows that combined funding for these industries in
the 2021–22 Budget is close to that provided in the 2020–21 Budget. At just
under $4 billion, the Government is providing a nominal increase of $160 million
on the previous year—mainly due to further support for arts and cultural
production—or 0.2% when adjusted for inflation.
Table 1: summary of expenses for
broadcasting, arts and cultural heritage, and sport and recreation, $ million
|
Actual
|
Estimates
|
Sub-function
|
2020–21
|
2021–22
|
2022–23
|
2023–24
|
2024–25
|
Broadcasting
|
1,507
|
1,524
|
1,515
|
1,526
|
1,537
|
Arts and cultural heritage
|
1,699
|
1,914
|
1,672
|
1,568
|
1,585
|
Sport and recreation
|
615
|
543
|
478
|
391
|
338
|
Total
|
3,821
|
3,981
|
3,474
|
3,485
|
3,460
|
Source: Australian Government, Budget
strategy and outlook: budget paper no. 1, 2021–22, p. 180.
Context
Already challenged by the disruptions
caused by digital platforms, the media, arts and sport were hit hard by the
social distancing measures introduced at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sporting codes were disrupted, live events cancelled, and galleries and museums
forced to close. While many venues and services subsequently reopened, the
challenges for workplaces—many of which relied on highly casualised workforces—were
compounded by subsequent unpredictable snap lockdowns. Measures in the 2020–21
Budget provided some assistance for stakeholders, but were not always wholeheartedly
welcomed. One
commentator, for example, described funding for arts and culture in last
year’s Budget as ‘a pimple to a pumpkin compared to what’s going into the
economy as a whole’ (p. 4).
Concerns about funding for the arts and culture had been
sharpened just prior to the pandemic, with a report by thinktank A New Approach
describing
in some detail the long-term decline in federal funding for artistic,
cultural and creative activity in Australia. The focus of interest for many in
the sporting industry pre-pandemic was on the Government’s administration
of sports grants.
Broadcasting and media
While Table 1 indicates a small increase in funding for
broadcasting (which includes both public and community broadcasters) for 2021–22
and over the forward estimates, Budget
Paper No. 1 states that in real terms funding will decrease by 0.8%
from 2020–21 to 2021–22, and by a further 6% from 2021–22 to 2024–25 (p. 180).
The Portfolio
Budget Statements 2021–22: Budget Related Paper No. 110: Infrastructure,
Transport, Regional Development and Communications Portfolio indicates
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation will receive an increase of $4.7
million in 2021–22, and an increase of $20.5 million across the forward
estimates from 2021–22 to 2024–25 (p. 131). There is no explanation in the
budget papers for this but the figures should probably be read as indicative given
the ABC is funded on a triennial basis, and its next agreement is scheduled to
be negotiated during 2022 (Budget
Review 2018–19, p. 113).
The Special Broadcasting Service will receive an increase of
$13 million in 2021–22 (Portfolio
Budget Statements, p. 489). This includes $10.5 million for an
extension of language services, which have also been allocated additional
funding across the forward estimates—$9.2 million in 2022–23 and $9.4 million
in 2023–24 (Budget
Measures: Budget Paper No. 2: 2021–22, p. 161). This will be helpful in
meeting the stated performance targets for SBS television (28,000 hours of culturally
and linguistically diverse programming on all linear channels) and SBS radio (90%
of all broadcasts in languages other than English).
The community broadcasting sector, which is funded through
grant monies channelled through the Community
Broadcasting Foundation, will receive top-up funding of $8 million over two
years. The measure is in addition to a minor increase in the annual allocations
for 2021–22 and 2022–23. (Portfolio
Budget Statements, p. 72). The
Community Broadcasting Association of Australia argued in its budget
submission for an annual increase of $5.3 million, ongoing and indexed to the
CPI; however the forward estimates indicate annual funding reverting to $16.6
million from 2023–24.
The
minister’s media release suggested the additional funding is in recognition
of the contribution community broadcasters made during the 2019–20 Black Summer
bushfires, and continue to make during the COVID-19 pandemic. A budget
‘explainer’ published
by the Community Broadcasting Foundation in April 2021 indicated it had
sought additional funding to ‘upgrade aging [sic] infrastructure’ and
also ‘support increased capacity and create employment opportunities after the
economic effects of drought, natural disasters and COVID-19’.
A further $15 million has been allocated from the Public
Interest News Gathering Fund to support the news agency Australian
Associated Press, which adds to the $5 million it received in
September 2020 under the same program. Previously Australia’s only newswire
service, AAP was expected
to close in March 2020 when its main shareholders News Corp Australia and
Nine Entertainment withdrew their funding, arguing the 85-year-old institution
was not sustainable. This new funding will help stabilise the AAP, now
reconstituted as a not-for-profit
company, as it faces the possibility of competition from NCA Newswire, an
in-house breaking news service developed
by News Corp.
Three further media-related support measures were announced
in the Budget:
Arts and cultural institutions
A package of $222.9 million has been allocated to continue
to support the arts sector in navigating the impacts of COVID-19. A key measure
is an allocation of $125.6 million to extend the Restart Investment
to Sustain and Expand Fund, from $75 million to $200 million. That fund was first
announced in June 2020 as one element of a $250 million Jobmaker
package of targeted support for the arts sector. The extension, announced
in March 2021, includes new guidelines—a reduction in the minimum grant
size from $75,000 to $25,000, and the option for multiple parties involved in
significant productions to apply—which the Government hopes will spread the
benefit of the fund further, including to the music sector.
Funding of $50.8 million will extend the Temporary
Interruption Fund, which supports local screen producers in circumstances
where new productions have been halted by insurers not providing coverage for
COVID-19. An original allocation of $50 million was
first announced in June 2020 for the program. The new funding, announced
in April 2021, will provide coverage for productions that commence
principal photography prior to 31 December 2021.
Some of Australia’s national museums, libraries and
galleries, often referred to as the ‘national collecting institutions’, have
been allocated an additional $85.4 million over four years to assist with what Budget Paper No. 2
describes as ‘enhancements’ (p. 162). The measure includes $47.5 million for a
variety of capital works, including:
- safety improvements at the Australian National Maritime Museum
-
restoration of the Bundanon Homestead and repairs to the Boyd
Education Centre
-
work towards completion of a backlog of capital works to replace
end-of-life capital assets at the National Gallery of Australia
-
refurbishment of the House of Representatives Chamber at Old
Parliament House and
-
support for the replacement of the Heating Ventilation and Air
Conditioning system at the National Library of Australia.
A media
release issued by the minister just prior to the Budget stated the measure
‘builds on the Government’s annual investment in the National Collecting
Institutions of more than $250 million in 2020–21’.
Funding for these institutions has received considerable
attention in recent years. The Report
on the Inquiry into Canberra’s National Institutions, tabled by the
Joint Standing Committee on the National Capital and External Territories in
April 2019, acknowledged the ‘disproportionate and cumulative impact’ of the efficiency
dividend on the services provided by many of the institutions, and recommended
the Government consider ‘setting a threshold amount for institutions’
annual expenditure below which the efficiency dividend would be excluded or
reduced’ (p. xix).
Table 2
presents a snapshot of funding provided by the Government to the various
agencies in the current and previous Budgets, and across the forward estimates.
Table 2: revenue from Government for Australia’s national
collecting institutions, $ million
|
Actual
|
Estimates
|
|
2020–21
|
2021–22
|
2022–23
|
2023–24
|
2024–25
|
Australian National Maritime
Museum
|
22,548
|
24,125
|
23,889
|
20,305
|
20,288
|
Australian War Memorial
|
44,241
|
46,093
|
42,720
|
41,183
|
41,175
|
Museum of Australian Democracy
|
18,746
|
13,569
|
14,938
|
14,273
|
14,234
|
National Archives of Australia
|
67,335
|
67,597
|
68,208
|
68,530
|
69,118
|
National Film and Sound Archive
|
26,535
|
25,084
|
25,183
|
24,304
|
24,425
|
National Gallery of Australia
|
49,569
|
49,592
|
47,745
|
44,830
|
44,900
|
National Library of Australia
|
58,786
|
56,810
|
55,778
|
46,905
|
46,943
|
National Museum of Australia
|
42,353
|
41,383
|
41,417
|
38,443
|
38,451
|
National Portrait Gallery of
Australia
|
12,845
|
12,475
|
12,530
|
11,787
|
11,843
|
Source: Budgeted financial statements in: Portfolio Budget
Statements 2021–22: Budget Related Paper No. 1.2: Infrastructure, Transport,
Regional Development and Communications Portfolio; Portfolio Budget
Statements 2021–22: Budget Related Paper No. 1.2: Attorney-General’s Portfolio;
Portfolio Budget Statements 2021–22: Budget Related Paper No. 1.11: Prime
Minister and Cabinet Portfolio; Portfolio Budget Statements 2021–22:
Budget Related Paper No. 1.3B: Defence Portfolio
The National Archives of Australia, which is funded through
the Attorney-General’s Department, did not share in the ‘enhancements’ package
for the National Collecting Institutions outlined in the budget papers, and Portfolio
Budget Statements 2021–22: Budget Related Paper No. 1.2: Attorney-General's
Portfolio indicates no change in its allocated funding for 2021–22, or
across the forward estimates (p. 278).
A review
of the NAA by former Secretary of the Department of Finance, David Tune, which
was completed in early 2020 and released in March 2021 (Estimates,
p. 16), pointed to the challenges it faces in fulfilling its role in securing,
preserving and making public the archival resources of the Commonwealth. The
review recommended a seven-year project, costing $67.7 million, to save most
high-priority ‘at-risk’ records (p. 13).
Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General Senator, Amanda
Stoker, has stated that the Government is still considering its response to
David Tune’s report, describing some aspects of the report as ‘revolutionary’.
She commented further that their implementation would require ‘an enormous
financial investment and a significant reorganisation of the way information is
stored and used in government’ (Estimates,
p. 17). Senator Stoker noted that the fragility of the Archives’ deteriorating
resources is a matter ‘that the government is quite concerned to act upon, and
that is front of mind in our action’ (p. 20).
Sport
Budget
Paper No. 1 indicates that overall funding for sport and recreation will
decrease by 13.3% in real terms from 2020–21 to 2021–22, and then decrease again
by 42% in real terms from 2021–22 to 2024–25 (p. 181). The first tranche is
described as ‘a cessation in short-term funding for sport’, and the second as
reflecting ‘the expected completion of grant funding for short-term
community-led projects to increase participation in sport and physical
activity, and the further completion of elements of the national sport plan, Sport
2030’.
In summary, $243.2 million is being provided over four years
from 2020–21.
Notable measures include:
- $82.2 million to extend the Athlete Performance Pathways program
-
$50.6 million for high performance programs in Olympic and
Paralympic sports
-
$40.8 million for the Sporting Schools program
-
$27.3 million to extend anti-doping and sports-betting activities
-
$12.2 million to prevent drowning and injury from water and
snow-related sport and
-
$12 million for women’s football ahead of the FIFA Women's World
Cup 2023, and $5 million to support the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup
2022, to accredit more women as coaches and officials and encourage Indigenous
women to get involved in basketball.
See also the Library Budget Review Brief on the Brisbane
Olympics 2032.