The Australian arts community is rejoicing following news George Brandis has been sacked from the Arts Ministry. The dumping of Senator Brandis follows calls from several prominent Australian creatives, including musician and author Nick Cave.
As Tone Deaf reported last week, Cave was the most prominent of a group of 263 writers to sign an open letter asking newly minted Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to sack Sen Brandis and protesting the leadership of the Book Council of Australia.
As the Sydney Morning Herald writes, the arts community is now calling on Sen Brandis’ replacement to “undo the damage” inflicted on the industry during his reign, which saw significant cuts to the arts community across all sectors.
Earlier this year, Crikey published a list of the 145 arts companies that have been gutted as a result of the cuts, including events such as the Queensland Music Festival.
“I think [Brandis] was a terrible Arts minister; I think history will show that clearly,” said Nicole Beyer, co-convenor of ArtsPeak. Prime Minister Turnbull appointed Sen Mitch Fifield as Minister for Communications and Minister for Arts on Sunday.
“With the new Arts Minister, we ultimately hope that he will see sense and return the funding taken from the Australia Council,” Ms Beyer said. Sen Brandis’ cuts included a diversion of more than $104 million in funds from the Australia Council.
The money was to be funnelled into the National Programme for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA), a new body administered by Sen Brandis, with grants signed off by him personally. The move was criticised by many in the Australian arts community.
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Critics claimed the diversion of funds removed objectivity from the grants process. Fairfax reports that a Senate inquiry is under way into the controversial new body, which Labor has described as a “slush fund” and “private arts fiefdom”.
The cuts followed a previous controversy which surfaced late last year, after Sen Brandis awarded a grant of $275,000 to for-profit classical record company Melba Recordings, despite the lack of a proper funding round or open application process to the grant which they received.
“Arm’s length funding has been proven to be a really great way to ensure a broad range of art gets funded, not just what the minister of the day fancies,” Ms Beyer, who is also the director of Theatre Network Victoria, said.
