'Australian artists would be justified in believing that the Coalition harbours a latent, sometimes visible, hostility to them and their calling.' After a series of gaffes Peter Garrett, the Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment, Heritage and the Arts, wasn't holding back when responding exclusively for this piece on the major parties' policies towards literature and publishing.
He appeared to have a point when he claimed, 'Sportspeople are often lauded by the Prime Minister and his senior team — but can you remember the last time they made a positive arts analogy?' Consider this: the Coalition groups Arts and Sport under one Minister, Senator George Brandis. Google his website and you'll find dozens of funding announcements for sport but barely a mention of the Arts, let alone literature.
Despite numerous phone calls and emails the Minister's minder, Travis Bell, was unwilling or unable to respond to specific queries about Coalition policies in these areas — apparently they stand on their record.
The Government spends over $1.3 billion per annum on the Arts. Of that only around $24 million goes to major literary initiatives — the PLR, ELR, the Literature Board and Books Alive. Yet both parties rush to throw millions at the TV and movie industry. Last year the Government invested around $110 million in our film industry, which generated only $40 million at the box office. Bookshops sell $750 million worth of Australian published books, all with GST. Yet the written arts receive less than a quarter of the filmed arts' subsidies.
Both parties have failed writers and the publishing industry for decades. Australia gives some of the lowest support to the literary fields of any developed country. Australian publishers annually generate about 430 titles per million people — one-eighth of that of New Zealand! We have a large and vibrant group of published and unpublished writers in mainstream literature, genre fiction and non-fiction, but most are published overseas.
So far in the election campaign neither party has made specific commitments to writing, writers or publishing. Labor 'supports' an extension to the Educational Lending Rights scheme but ignores the more important Public Lending Rights scheme. They are also 'committed' to lifting the very low average income of 'artists', although it is unclear whether all types of artists are being regarded equally.
Garrett indicated Labor would examine overseas experience to determine ways to 'better equip artists for future work so