Submission to Impact of the 2014 and 2015 Commonwealth Budget Decisions on the Arts committee

I am an Australian writer whose books have been studied on the HSC and at university level. My early career was greatly assisted by Literature Board of the Australia Council grants, as were the careers of many other Australian writers.

I am very concerned that the Draft Guidelines for the National Program for Excellence in the Arts do not allow for individual support. This disadvantages writers, in particular, as they do not normally work in tandem with others, or in groups, unless they write for the theatre or for film.

I am also concerned at the weakening of the strong tradition of peer reviewing, transparency and accountability that has been a notable feature of the Australia Council. I have served as a judge for several Australia Council grant rounds for writing and publishing and I am fully aware of how scrupulous and equitable the process has always been. Moderating assessments so that ‘government policy objectives’ have been met has never been a criterion, nor should it be – this smacks of political censorship and bias.

I am at a loss to understand the efficiency of having two separate federal arts funding bodies, probably assessing the same projects, with this new one not subject to the advantages– in terms of expertise – and rigours of properly monitored peer reviewing.

Budget cuts to the Australia Council – money taken apparently to fund this new scheme – have already disadvantaged many individual writing projects, including the new disabled arts grants, and this proposal does not compensate in any way for that.

The ‘bums on seats’ philosophy for many years saw the privileging, in terms of funding support, of opera, ballet, film and theatre in this country over individual writers. Yet I would argue most strongly that individual writers get many more bums on seats – the seats of people’s living rooms and back yards, of buses, of trams and trains and ferries, of airports and the benches in parks. Not to mention the bums on hospital beds and beaches.

Australian literature is a great national resource that needs more, not less, acknowledgement and financial support. DBC Pierre, Peter Carey, JM Coetzee and Thomas Keneally are all winners of the Booker Prize, Patrick White of the Nobel Prize, and many other Australian writers have won other international literature prizes. The lack of attention to literature in this draft proposal is worrying in the extreme. In terms of ‘international and cultural diplomacy’ Australia’s writers have a huge impact on the international scene and writers’ festivals have brought internationally famous authors out regularly for the last twenty or more years. This argues for the funding of writers’ organisations for more than a one-off project.

I strongly urge that the decision to establish the NPEA be reversed and that funding to the Australia Council be restored.

Jean Bedford