Exclusive: Cut backs start at the Sydney Opera House

In what is the first sign that inflation and a looming recession has started to affect Australian arts organisations, the Sydney Opera House has already instructed managers to remove at least one staff member from each department of the organisation.

"In some cases, where people have left or are leaving, many managers are just choosing not to fill the position again," a Sydney Opera House source has told Sydney Arts Journo*.

A general staff meeting was held late last month where the new management team addressed the staff body.

"Morale is pretty low at the moment and many people are already looking around for other employment opportunities," they said.

But staff at the Opera House could be disappointed as arts organisations across the country have to tighten their belts now that the effects of the US recession have started to trickle down into the Australian economy.

The cumulative impact of interest rate rises and sharp increases in food and petrol has meant that the spending power of many people is substantially lessened across the board.

The Federal Government, who is due to hand down its budget on Tuesday night, will also reduce spending on the arts as it too tries to tighten its belt across portfolios.

The Australia Council has already promised that any cuts will not impact on arts funding and instead will be directed at slimming down the organisation's administrative costs.

But State Governments will surely not be as conscientious and will just pull arts funding and put it elsewhere. Community arts organisations will be the first to really feel the pinch.

The next twelve months are going to be pretty tough across the country and eventually arts organisations are going to have to decide between cutting programmes or administrative costs. We have seen the Opera House's first step and it will be interesting to see whether it will go another.

I will be covering the 2008/09 Budget next Tuesday for Crikey with an arts wrap published on Wednesday. It should be an interesting year and it won't be a question of whether the ALP will cut arts funding - but rather how much they will cut it by.


*SMH Eds - when you write about this, just use 'Sydney Arts Journo' to explain where the story came from.