A More Cultural Australia - The Budget 07/8

From tonight's Budget speech presented by the Hon Peter Costello, Treasurer of the Australian Government, Canberra.

"There is no higher responsibility for a government than the artistic development of Australia. Members of the Australian arts community are currently serving with distinction in many centres across the country.

Improved recuitment and retention is necessary in order to ensure we maintain the current high standards of our arts workforce. And we want the arts community to grow to its intended strength of 57,000 arts workers.

Tonight I announce additional funding of $2.1 Billion over ten years for a range of inititatives to improve the development and retention and enhance the arts across the country. Incentives for young Australians to take up an arts career, and an expanded arts training programme for young people.

And the Government is committed to ensuring our arts community is fully equipped to meet new and existing creative challenges.

The Budget provides funding over thirteen years to acquire and build 24 new arts research complexes throughout the country. This purchase will ensure a solid future for our arts industry. The Government is committed to emerging artists across all genres.

This Budget has inititives against cultural apathy. High priority to strengthening arts industries, research and further strengthening artistic development.

This brings to $10.4 Billion the additional funding the Government has committed to the Arts industries over the ten years to 2010/11."


No - he didn't say that at all - it's an edited version of the defence announcment. It would have been nice though. Below are the press release details of what the arts can expect from The Budget. Make sure you take note of how much they are spending and over how many years. It is a bit worse than I thought. The big winner, it appears from initial looks, is the major tax incentives that the film industry is receiving.

You can go here, to see the full press release details. Just watch out that you don't step in a pile of rhetoric.

It is very early days on these announcements and we are still trying to get our heads around the detail - particularly the film changes. So below are edited cut and pastes from the Hon George Brandis' office.


The Arts in The Budget

National Portrait Gallery

$21.2 million over three years in new funding for the National Portrait Gallery to develop new services, enhance its exhibition and education programmes for visitors and assist with the cost of commissioning its new premises, due to open in December 2008.


The Australian Ballet School

The Australian Government will provide the Australian Ballet School with $4.6 million in the next financial year in order to refurbish its facilities and plan the future expansion of its programme to deliver full-time world class classical dance training.

Next financial year, the Government will provide the Australian Ballet School with:

$2.9 million in new funding to reconfigure its current facilities in the Australian Ballet Centre, Southbank, Melbourne;

• $2.9 million in new funding to reconfigure its current facilities in the Australian Ballet Centre, Southbank, Melbourne;


• $1.7 million in new funding to scope an expanded training programme including a full-time training curriculum, investigation of site options, and undertaking preliminary design for new training facilities and residential accommodation to meet the future needs of a world-class ballet school; and


• $1.1 million to support the delivery of its training programme.

Small to Medium Performing Arts Companies

The Australian Government has committed additional funding of $19.5 million over four years for Australia’s small to medium performing arts companies, constituting an annual increase in overall funding of more than 60 per cent.

This additional funding for small-to-medium performing arts companies will be included as an indexed and ongoing increase of $4.8 million per annum to the base funding of the Australia Council, the Australian Government’s main arts funding body.


Visual Arts & Crafts

The Australian Government will ensure the continuation of its successful Visual Arts and Craft Strategy through the provision of a further $24.7 million over the next four years.

Key results of the first four years of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy include a:

• 23 per cent increase in organisations’ earned income;


• 98 per cent increase in public programmes;


• 125 per cent increase in sponsorship; and


• 41 per cent increase in gallery visitor numbers.

The Australian Film Industry

The Australian Government has announced a comprehensive package of measures to significantly boost support for the Australian film and television industry, following the completion of the Review of Australian Government Film Funding Support.

A new Australian Screen Production Incentive will be introduced which provides two major incentives to stimulate growth in the Australian industry.

A new Producer Rebate will replace the 10BA and 10B schemes and allow producers the capacity to offer significant returns to investors for productions with wide audience appeal. Australia will also be able to attract strong ongoing interest from offshore filmmakers through significantly enhanced incentives from a Location Rebate, which will replace the Refundable Film Tax Offset.

As part of the package, a new screen agency incorporating the Australian Film Commission (AFC), Film Finance Corporation (FFC) and Film Australia Ltd (FAL) will be created from 1 July 2008, to be named the Australian Screen Authority (ASA).

The introduction of a new Producer Rebate represents a major new support mechanism for film producers. It will assist the industry to be more competitive and responsive to audiences, by providing a tax rebate of 40 percent of eligible Australian expenditure to producers of qualifying feature films, with a 20 per cent rate for qualifying television productions.

The major priority for the ASA’s resourcing will be on production of projects of national cultural significance which would be unlikely to attract the necessary private finance to proceed on the basis of the rebate alone. Such projects may include documentaries, children’s programs, new producers’ work and indigenous content.

In conjunction with the establishment of the ASA, t he research and statistics function currently undertaken by the AFC will be transferred to the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS) along with appropriate resourcing. This will allow the AFTRS Centre for Screen Business to strengthen its position as a significant industry resource.

An improved Location Rebate will significantly enhance Australia’s attractiveness as a location for the filming of large-budget offshore productions, including post digital and visual effects projects. The Location Rebate increases the rebate from 12.5 per cent to 15 per cent, introduces a world-first complementary 15 per cent rebate on all expenditure on post production, digital and visual effects undertaken in Australia for projects valued over $5 million, and provides greater certainty about what production expenditures qualify for the rebate.



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