Dr. Tyson Wils
Australian Government expenditure on recreation and culture
in 2019–20 is estimated to be $3.8 billion, representing less than 1 per cent
of the Australian Government’s total expenditure.[1]
The Recreation and Culture function has four sub-functions:
-
broadcasting
- arts and cultural heritage
- sport and recreation and
- national estate and parks.
Broadcasting is
largely made-up of expenses for public broadcasting i.e. the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and the Special Broadcasting Service (SBS).
Arts and cultural
heritage consists of a number of components, including items from the
Communications and the Arts portfolio and the Veterans Affairs portfolio i.e.
Australia War Memorial. In terms of the Communications and the Arts portfolio,
it includes funding for arts agencies and activities such as:
- Australia Council for the Arts
- Creative Partnerships Australia
- Australian Film Television and Radio School
- Australian National Maritime Museum
- National Gallery of Australia
- National Library of Australia
- National Museum of Australia
- Screen Australia
- National Film and Sound Archive
- Old Parliament House
- National Portrait Gallery of Australia
- Department of Communications and the Arts administered programs
and support and
- Australian Screen Production Incentive.
Sport and recreation
includes components within the Health portfolio. It can involve funding for
the Department of Health’s specific sport and recreation programs and expenses
for agencies such as Sport Australia (formerly the Australian Sports
Commission) and the Australian Sports Anti-doping Authority. It can also
include funding for specific sports related measures administered through other
Commonwealth departments.
National estate and parks includes funding for the
marine and terrestrial reserves managed by the Director of National Parks, the
Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the Australian Antarctic Program as
well as assistance for the Australian properties on the National Heritage List,
the Commonwealth Heritage List and the World Heritage List.
Table 1 below indicates total expenditure for the Recreation
and Culture function from 2018–19 to 2022–23.
Table 1: total recreation and culture expenditure 2018–19
to 2022–23
($ million) |
2018–19 (est.) |
2019–20 (est.) |
2020–21 (est.) |
2021–22 (proj.) |
2022–23 (proj.) |
Broadcasting |
1 490 |
1 476 |
1 482 |
1 494 |
1 500 |
Arts and cultural heritage |
1 455 |
1 437 |
1 379 |
1 390 |
1 380 |
Sport and recreation |
584 |
489 |
397 |
337 |
329 |
National estate and parks |
459 |
448 |
480 |
494 |
487 |
Total |
3 988 |
3 849 |
3 738 |
3 714 |
3 696 |
Note: Figures may not add due to rounding
Source: Australian Government, Budget strategy and outlook:
budget paper no. 1, 2019–20, pp. 5–29.
Table 2 below indicates the breakdown of expenditure between
the sub-functions of the Recreation and Culture function:
Table 2: proportion of total recreation and culture
expenditure
Proportion of expenditure (%) |
2018–19 (est.) |
2019–20 (est.) |
2020–21 (est.) |
2021–22 (proj.) |
2022–23 (proj.) |
Broadcasting |
37.4 |
38.3 |
39.6 |
40.2 |
40.6 |
Arts and cultural heritage |
36.5 |
37.3 |
36.9 |
37.4 |
37.3 |
Sport and recreation |
14.6 |
12.7 |
10.6 |
9.1 |
8.9 |
National estate and parks |
11.5 |
11.6 |
12.8 |
13.3 |
13.2 |
Note: Figures may not add due to rounding
Source: Parliamentary Library.
Broadcasting
The ABC
and the SBS will receive $3.2 billion and $851.8 million respectively in
base funding over three years (p. 57). This base operational funding is
determined on a triennial basis. It should be noted that in the 2018–19 Budget,
the Government
announced that there would be a pause in indexation of the ABC’s
operational funding for three years from 2019–20. It was stated that this would
‘result in savings to the Budget of $83.7 million over three years from 2019–20
to 2021–22’ (p. 79).[2] Since the 2014–15
Budget (p. 66) and the 2014–15
Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) (p. 141) both broadcasters
have also been subject to efficiency measures; in November 2014 then Minister
for Communications, Malcolm
Turnbull, said that:
The Government has released the final funding arrangements
for the next five years, which will see the ABC and SBS eliminate
inefficiencies in their back office operations ensuring they deliver
Australians even better value.
In total, including the 1 per cent down-payment announced in
the May budget, the overall savings to the broadcasters is $308 million over
five years or 4.4 per cent of taxpayers' investment.
For the ABC this means it will receive $5.2 billion over five
years rather than $5.5 billion—a saving of $254 million or 4.6 per cent.
For the SBS this means its operating budget will be reduced
by $25.2 million or 1.7 per cent over the five year period.
These efficiency measures have
decreased expenditure in broadcasting along with the pause in indexation
announced in the 2018–19 Budget.
These decreases are partly offset
by measures that provide additional funding to the ABC and the SBS. The 2019–20
Budget’s Guaranteeing
Australia’s Public Broadcasters – funding for the ABC and the SBS measure will
see the ABC receive $43.7 million and the SBS $29.6 million over three years
from 2019–20. The $43.7 million is for ‘the ABC to continue to support local
news and current affairs services, particularly in regional areas’ (p. 57).
This measure continues the funding that the ABC has been provided since the 2013–14
Budget for the Enhanced News Services initiative, although it represents a
slight increase on the $41.4 million provided over three years in the 2016–17
Budget.
The $29.6
million for the SBS ‘is to guarantee the ongoing quality of its television,
radio and online services’ (p. 57). In the 2018–19 Budget the Funding
for Australian Film and Television Content and the National Broadcasters
measure was also announced. The SBS would receive $17.6 million over two years
from 2018–19 ‘to contribute to the production and distribution of Australian
film, television and radio content’ (p. 79). It was stated that this would
include $8.7 million in 2018–19 and $5.9 million in 2019–20 (a total of $14.6
million) ‘to replace revenue that could not be raised as legislation to allow
the SBS further advertising flexibility was not passed by Parliament’ (p. 79).[3]
Previous support has been given to the SBS to compensate for revenue that could
not be raised from advertising. This includes the 2015–16 Additional Estimates
when $4.1 million of the funding cut from the SBS in the 2015–16
Budget in anticipation of legislation being passed was returned to the
broadcaster.[4]
Arts and Cultural Heritage
Since 2017 there have been
decreases in expenditure in the Arts and Cultural Heritage sub-function due to
‘fewer productions applying for and receiving taxation rebates through the Australian
Screen Production Incentive’.[5] The Australian Screen
Production Incentive is made-up of a range of tax incentives for screen
production. However, in the 2018–19 Budget, the Government
announced that it would be providing ‘$140 million over four years from
2019–20 to attract international investment to sustain Australian jobs in the
film production and related industries through a competitive incentive program’
(p. 79). The Location Incentive Funding Program complements the other tax measures
in the Australian Screen Production Incentive scheme and offsets the decline in
tax rebates through the other tax incentives.[6]
In the 2018–19 Mid-Year
Economic and Fiscal Outlook the Government announced that it would ‘provide
$4.6 million in 2019–20 to contribute to the development of Australian film and
television content’ (p. 161). This would include $2.9 million to the Australian Children’s Television Foundation and
$1.7 million to Ausfilm. This
measure was said to build on the Funding for Australian Film and Television
Content and the National Broadcasters measure introduced in the 2018–19
Budget (see Broadcasting above). The Government also said that it would build
on the 2018–19 Budget measure National Gallery of Australia – additional
capital funding and ‘provide $63.8 million over four years from 2018–19
(and $14.4 million per year ongoing) to the National Gallery of Australia’
(p. 162).
In the 2019–20 Budget the
National Library of Australia (NLA) will receive $10.0 million over four years
from 2019–20 to create a Digitisation Fund (p. 58). The measure will be used to
fund a range of projects, including ‘the digitisation of the papers of eminent
Australians ... as well as all Australian books, journals and newspapers
published before Federation’ (p. 58). This measure extends the $16.4 million
provided to the NLA over five years ‘for digitisation of material and upgrade
of critical infrastructure’ (including the Trove digital information resource)
announced in the 2016–17
MYEFO (p. 140) and part of the Public
Service Modernisation Fund. It should be noted, however, that the NLA,
along with other ‘cultural and collecting entities within the Arts portfolio’,
has been subject to the efficiency measures introduced in 2015–16, which aimed
to achieve Budget savings of $36.8 million.[7]
The Government
has also said that it will ‘provide $30.9 million over five years from 2019–20
(including $5.1 million in 2023–24)’ to fund a range of measures aimed at supporting
the Australian music industry (p. 60). This includes $25.2 million to create
new grants programs, including for Indigenous musicians, and ‘$2.0 million to
extend the Australia Council for the Arts’ Contemporary Music Touring Program’.
(p. 60).
Sport and Recreation
In August 2018 the Coalition
Government released the national sports plan Sport
2030. The plan outlined strategic priority areas and target outcomes,
including ‘building a more active Australia’ and ‘achieving sporting
excellence’.
In the 2019–20 Budget the
Government has announced Implementing
Sport 2030 (pp. 92–94). $385.6 million is to be provided over six
years from 2018–19, although ‘the cost of this measure will be partially met
from existing resources and funding that has already been provided for by the
Government’ (p. 94). Sport Australia (formerly Australian Sports Commission),
the Department of Infrastructure, Regional Development and Cities, Tourism
Australia and the Department of Health will all be involved in implementing
various aspects of the measure.
Among the initiatives is the creation of a new body, Sport Integrity Australia, and a new National Sports Tribunal, which the Government says will cost $33 million over two years from 2019–20 to implement. In February 2019 the Government announced that in response to the 2018 Report of the Review of Australia’s Sports Integrity Arrangements it would establish ‘a new single national sports integrity agency – Sport Integrity Australia’, which would ‘bring together the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA), the National Integrity of Sport Unit and the national sports integrity functions of Sport Australia’. It was stated that, ‘ASADA will receive ongoing funding over the next two years in the lead-up to the agency’s formal establishment’.
Other initiatives include ‘$150.0
million over four years from 2019–20 to support the development of female
change room facilities at sporting grounds and for community swimming
facilities across Australia’ and ‘$54.1 million over two years from 2019–20 for
high performance grants to National Sporting Organisations and to support
athletes through the Direct Athlete Support Scheme, and expand the Mental
Health Referral Network’.
The Government has said that the
Implementing Sport 2030 measure builds on previous measures. This includes the Sport
2030–high performance funding measure announced in the 2018-19 Mid-Year
Economic and Fiscal Outlook where the Government said it would ‘provide an
additional $50.7 million over four years from 2018–19 to support athletes
preparing for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics’ (p. 190). This would
include $50.4 million over two years from 2018–19 for high performance grants
to National Sporting Organisations and athletes and $0.3 million over four
years from 2018–19 (and $0.1 million per year ongoing) for payments to
Disability Support Pension Paralympic athletes (p. 190). Minister for Sport, Senator
Bridget McKenzie, stated in October 2018 that the proposed investment in
high performance sport for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics aligned with
Sport 2030 which, she said, ‘sets out a long-term roadmap for Australian sports
and physical activity at all levels’.
National estate and parks
In the 2019–20 Budget a range of initiatives are funded as
part of the Hobart City Deal, including for Australia’s Antarctic Division. A
number of agencies are involved in implementing these initiatives. The funding
includes:
-
$465.2 million over 10 years from 2019–20 to upgrade Australia’s
Antarctic research station network and supporting infrastructure to enhance
Australia’s environmental, economic, scientific, security and strategic
interests in Antarctica
- $7.6 million in 2018–19 to develop a second-pass business case
for the construction and maintenance of a new year-round aviation facility near
Davis Research Station in Antarctica and
-
$0.5 million over five years from 2018–19 (and $0.1 million
ongoing from 2023–24) to establish an Australian Antarctic Science Council to
support reform initiatives announced as part of the Government’s response to
the Australian Antarctic Science Program Governance Review 2017 (pp. 128–129).
Increases in expenses in this sub-function are also due to
the operating and maintenance
costs for the new icebreaker.
The Securing
Tourism and Jobs in Kakadu Budget Measure will also provide up to $216
million from 2018–19 through 2028–19 for tourism, transport, environment
protection and national parks in the Kakadu region. No annual breakdown of this
funding is available at this time. The funding for programs under this measure
involves a number of agencies:
- $51.2 million to development of a Tourism Master Plan for Kakadu
and upgrade campground infrastructure, walking tracks, viewing platforms and
interpretive signage
- $35.0 million to assist with the remediation of contamination in
Jabiru, including asbestos
- up to $70.0 million to improve roads to increase tourist
accessibility to significant tourist sites in Kakadu and
- up to $60.0 million towards the construction of a Kakadu Visitor
Centre in Jabiru, if subject to the development of a business case and market
soundings.
Table 3: proportion of total budget expenditure relative
to the total budget
Proportion of expenditure (%) |
2018–19 (est.) |
2019–20 (est.) |
2020–21 (est.) |
2021–22 (proj.) |
2022–23 (proj.) |
Broadcasting |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
Arts and cultural heritage |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.3 |
0.2 |
Sport and recreation |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
National estate and parks |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
0.1 |
Total |
0.8 |
0.8 |
0.7 |
0.7 |
0.7 |
Note: Figures may not add due to rounding
Source: Parliamentary Library.
[1].
See Appendix 1.
[2]. For more
detail see T Wils, ‘Funding for the national broadcasters’, Budget review 2018–19,
Research paper series, 2017–18, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2018.
[3].
For background context to the legislation see the Parliamentary
Library’s Bills Digest: R Jolly, Communications
Legislation Amendment (SBS Advertising Flexibility and Other Measures ) Bill
2015,95, 2014–15, Parliamentary Library, Canberra, 2015.
[4].
Australian Government, Portfolio
Budget Statements 2016–17: budget related paper no.13, Communications and
the Arts Portfolio, p. 323.
[5].
See Australian Government, Budget strategy and
outlook: budget paper no. 1 2018–19, p. 6–31 and Australian Government, Budget
strategy and outlook: budget paper no.1, 2019–20, pp. 5–30.
[6].
For more information and context see International
film investment in Australia: the Location Incentive Funding Program.
[7].
See Australian Government, 2015-16
Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook.
All online articles accessed April 2019
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