Politics to one side, Minister Burke clearly has more than passing interest in how cultural realities impact upon community wellbeing. In the Menzies Era and up to McMahon's time the Minister for the Arts eventually got to be Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and 'The Environment' – all the things governments looked like they need to have policies about but were not all that interested in going so.
Peter Howson in the McMahon Govt being an exemplar, when he was appointed as Australia's first Minister for the Environment, Aborigines and the Arts, he was reported as commenting: "The little bastard gave me trees, boongs and pooftas". In so many ways Howson's Ghost haunted the Morrison Govt and other governments before that. It turned out that these 'peripheral issues' were not so peripheral after all– indeed they are not.
Speaking of 'trickle downs', arguably in Tasmania Howson's Ghost cum legacy has haunted, or is haunting, government at all levels still – not to ignore Local Govt. Launceston's Council is where you'll find Howson's Ghost lurking still in its policy determination. For example:
• The QVMAG's Aboriginal Reference Group when it meets and the GM (AKA CEO) is present he reportedly informs 'the group' that he will be making the "decisions";
• When the Mayor/Deputy Mayor GM (AKA CEO) are presented with First Nations reconciliation issue they reportedly informs 'whoever' that they will be making a "decision" that in turn goes to the back burner;
• When the Council, Mayor and GM (AKA CEO) are presented with a First Nations accountability issue they reportedly informs 'whoever' that they will not be making the requested information available given its sensitivity;
• When the Council and/or the GM (AKA CEO) are presented with an environment issue they will inform 'whoever' that they will be making a "decision" that in turn goes to the back burner; and indeed will invoke the status quo, blighted as it is by Howson's Ghost lurking in every crevice at Town Hall.
Given that 'opinion', even expert opinion, is the order of human knowledge, it does not require accountability, or indeed any real understanding. Empathy, on the other hand requires the suspension of egos and the ability to embrace another’s world. Empathy's purpose is profound and larger than any estimate of self worth”
SOURCE https://www.smh.com.au/culture/movies/culture-in-crisis-arts-minister-tony-burke-slams-decade-of-neglect-20220630-p5ay3z.html
‘Lazy and indulgent’: Arts minister slams previous government’s board appointments By Karl Quinn July 1, 2022 — 5.30am
Australia’s cultural institutions are in a state of disrepair and will take years to recover, according to Labor’s Arts Minister Tony Burke.
In an interview with The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald in which he addressed a range of issues including the need for Australian content quotas for the streamers, the previous government’s lack of support for the local film industry while throwing incentives at Hollywood, and the stacking of cultural boards with political appointees, Burke said the damage was substantial and would take years to undo.
Tony Burke announcing the Labor Party’s arts policy in Melbourne in May.
The Morrison government operated on the principle of providing funding to cultural institutions only when “everything was falling apart”, he said.
“It took a massive number of leaks in the National Gallery before it got funding. It took for some of the records at the Australian Archives to be physically dissolving before extra funding was provided. For a political brand that calls itself conservatives, they weren’t interested in conserving much.”
According to recent reports, the 40-year-old National Gallery building needs $87 million worth of urgent repairs, but only $20 million was funded by the previous government.
Burke said he had met with “every collecting institution” already and encouraged them to make direct submissions to the Creative Australia cultural policy review that would frame Labor’s approach to regulation and support of the arts.
Some changes, such as quotas, could be made without great cost to the government, he said, but others would need to be fought for in upcoming budget discussions.
The National Gallery in Canberra: a recent report claimed the building needs $87 million worth of urgent repairs, but only $20 million has been funded.
The National Gallery in Canberra: a recent report claimed the building needs $87 million worth of urgent repairs, but only $20 million has been funded.
“The reality is you can’t turn a decade of neglect around in a couple of years,” he said. “We’ve got all the budgetary pressures we have and the institutions, while their collections remain magnificent, have infrastructure around them that’s seriously run down. It’s going to be hard. I don’t think there’s any other way of describing it.”
Claiming he had first raised the need for regulation of programming delivered via the internet in 2013 (when it was still known as Internet Protocol Television), Burke flagged the likelihood that the 5 per cent Australian content requirement for the streaming platforms proposed by the last government would be scrapped in favour of a higher figure.
“The longer we’ve left it the harder it becomes,” he said. “I do support quotas for streamers … I view the 5 per cent proposal as too little too late, but exactly where we land is a decision not yet taken.”
Hollywood films are all well and good, but they rarely tell Australian stories - or even stories from this planet. Hollywood films are all well and good, but they rarely tell Australian stories - or even stories from this planet.
The local production sector is pushing for a 20 per cent Australian content quota. In some European jurisdictions, the requirement is 30 per cent.
Noting that the outgoing government had made a raft of appointments, many with strong Liberal Party links, to the boards of cultural institutions in its final months, Burke ruled out a wholesale spill of positions as is being considered by Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus for the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
“It’s not my starting point,” he said. “If what we’re trying to establish is long-term institutions, you’ve got to be very careful of legislative processes to wind them up and start again.”
The stories [Hollywood tells] are rarely Australian stories. Sometimes they’re not just not from this country ... not even from this planet.”
Tony Burke, Arts Minister He said that position had been made easier to hold by the fact “three or four” appointees “have been really honourable, and even without me asking have put forward resignations for themselves to give me the chance to make decisions”.
“I’m very respectful and impressed by the people who have done that,” Burke added. “Obviously, not all of them have.”
He said there are broader issues with the constitution of the boards of some of our national cultural institutions, which he described as “the custodians of Australian stories”.
“My biggest frustration is in the gaps we have. I don’t see how you have a portrait gallery with no First Nations member on its board. I don’t see how you have a national museum with a board that does not include a single historian.
“The previous government made some appointments that were excellent, some that were lazy, and some that were simply indulgent,” he said.
Burke said he supported the Location Incentive Fund for the film industry introduced by the Turnbull government and expanded under Morrison to attract Hollywood productions to Australia, but said more needed to be done to encourage and support the telling of Australian stories on screen.
“One of the great lost opportunities of the last few years was that the previous government was willing to throw a whole lot of money at Hollywood productions at the exact same time that it was cutting effective regulatory means of support for Australian productions,” he said, citing the proposed halving of Foxtel’s Australian drama obligation.
Burke said he welcomed Hollywood productions and the jobs they bring, “but we can’t pretend that’s job done for the Australian film industry … the stories they tell are rarely Australian stories.
“Sometimes they’re not just not from this country,” he added, “they’re not even from this planet.”
Email the author at kquinn@theage.com.au,
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