Committee Secretary Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee PO Box 6100 Parliament House Canberra ACT 2600 [email protected]

16 July 2015 – resubmitted 18 Sept 2015

Dear Committee Secretary,

On behalf of the 10 major Arts Festivals in South [The Festival, Adelaide Fringe, WOMADelaide, Cabaret Festival, Come Out Children’s Festival, South Australian Living Artists Festival, & Festival of Ideas, OzAsia, Feast Adelaide Queer Cultural Festival and The Guitar Festival] I offer the following statements for consideration during the Senate Inquiry into the impact of the 2014 and 2015 Commonwealth Budget decisions on the Arts.

Festivals Adelaide is the alliance of the 10 festivals working at strategic and practical levels to deliver ongoing cultural, social and economic benefit to the state of and the .

Firstly, please may we acknowledge the genuine support that Minister Brandis has afforded the festivals through maintaining, in full, the Festivals Australia Fund. This is significantly important for the creation of new work and therefore the opportunity for festivals to premiere new Australian work. There is also support for the opportunity to bring work of the highest standard from abroad to our festivals for the benefit of Australian artists and audience to experience.

However, we would like to express concern at the fact that rather than providing additional funding for the new initiative as described as the objectives of National Program for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA), funding available to the Australia Council has been cut in order to provide funds to this initiative.

 We understand that in real terms, there has been a reduction by one third to the back-bone of our arts industry, the small to medium sector.

 These companies and artistic individuals create the vast majority of Australia’s original artistic work – much of which is used in the platforms provided by our thriving festivals. It is through these companies that we get our most original creative work and continue to develop contemporary Australian culture.

 The festivals believe that the arts ecosystem requires a diverse mix of artists and creative output that is both emerging, experimental, professional and commercial.

We are also concerned at absence of consultation with either the Arts Industry or the Australia Council Board or Executive in making the decision to set up the NPEA at the expense of the small to medium arts sector funded by the Australia Council. This decision has caused significant disruption to the entire industry and has set back the creative sector at all levels.

Festivals Adelaide as national representative body understands that competitive collaboration is fundamental for the sector to flourish and we are working with the Australia Council on the development of a National Festivals Strategy.

In South Australia, we have in train a Festival Strategy. Through the Australia Council, we were working with festival colleagues across the country on the development of a National Festival Strategy. A strategy that would assist the growth, professionalism and connection of this strong sector. This project is now on indefinite hold due to the necessity of the Australia Council to internally manage the ramifications of the NPEA decisions.

We believe that the National Program for Excellence in the Arts has a place in Australia and may result in significant works and ambitious projects, but this program needs to be appropriately funded so as to ensure it does not adversely affect the creation of new work, new talent and cultural identity which lies with our small to medium sector – and which must be funded to prosper.

We strongly recommend re-instating funding to the Australia Council to ensure it can adequately support the small to medium sector.

Yours sincerely

Christie Anthoney Executive Officer Festivals Adelaide