There is a lady sweet and kind,
Was never face so pleased my mind;
I did but see her passing by,
And yet I love her till I die.

Her gesture, motion and her smiles,
Her wit, her voice, my heart beguiles;
Beguiles my heart, I know not why,
And yet I love her till I die.

Had I her fast betwixt mine arms,
Judge you that think such sports were harms,
Were't any harm? No, no, fie, fie!
For I will love her till I die.

Should I remain confinèd there
So long as Phoebus in his sphere,
I to request, she to deny,
Yet would I love her till I die. 

Her free behavior, winning looks,
Will make a lawyer burn his books.
I touched her not alas not I,
And yet I'll love her till she dies.

Cupid is winged and doth range
Her country so my love doth change;
But change she earth or change she sky,
Yet will I love her till I die.

The Coalition has shown that it has no regard for positive artistic growth in Australia and unless Malcolm Turnbull's attitude changes dramatically with his new government, untold damage to the arts industry will be done. Daniel Barnett reports.

AT THE outset of the Abbott government's time in office, the Australian independent art scene was feeling immense monetary pressure, as the Coaltion had cut over $100 million from the Australia Council, the advisory and funding body for the arts.

Just like the absence of dedicated Science Minister in the Coalition cabinet, there was no dedicated Arts Minister in the Abbott Government. Attorney  General George Brandis was given responsibility for the arts.

As minister, he was given absolute control over a "ministerial slushfund' named the National Program for Excellent in the Arts (NPEA), a move labeled deeply distressing by CEO of the Melbourne Writers Festival, Lisa Dempster.

Whilst the Australia Council’s model for grants was tried, tested, and peer- reviewed over four decades, Brandis was given unprecedented and overreaching power to veto any and all funding decisions made through the NPEA.

The fund's seeming focus on excellence rather than experimentation was seen by the community as stifling to artistic growth across the sector.

What Brandis did to Arts funding in Australia has crippled the industry. Shame. In what other industry would that have been allowed? @QandA

— 10er (@SamuelSakker) July 11, 2016

To make matters worse, at the beginning of this election cycle, the Turnbull Government attempted to curtail favor with the artisan community with the “new” Catalyst fund, the much maligned and commercially hamstrung rebranding of the NPEA, under new Minister for the Arts Mitch Fifield.

Having almost $100 million less to award in grants to small and medium sized theatre companies, the amount of good it could do was minimal at best. With a slim Coalition majority returning to the Lower House, the arts industry in Australia will continue its sad slide into mediocrity, with Turnbull failing to take a comprehensive arts policy to the election.

On previous form, this industry is a boon for saving and cuts in a government obsessed with removing services directly related to fast growing industries. It is by no means a stretch to see this continuing under Turnbull and Fifield through 2019.

Labor and the Greens are once again consigned to opposition, and with that comes a lack of any real ability to change the current trend, and the Arts Party, who once showed moderate promise, failed to gain any seat in either house of parliament this electoral season and sadly whose only major accomplishment seems to be the adoption of a “National Arts Week” policy by the Greens.

Funding, it seems, will remain scarce for more economically unviable/experimental operations; small to medium sized companies that specialise in niche work will be forced to slide into the mainstream, find alternate funding in the private sector, or cease to exist.

To Fifield: Don't participate in a arts policy debate without presenting one.https://t.co/zq1nImomMG @GuardianAus #ausvotes

— Jarad McLoughlin (@jazer1985) June 12, 2016

This isn’t only a question of theatre funding, with the Coalition unable to guarantee future funding for Trove. For those unaware, Trove is the National Library of Australia’s online database, which uses specific metadata collection to pull together citations and make searching for specific information far easier. It contains millions upon millions of detailed primary and secondary sources, covering hundreds of years of Australian history.It ranges from museum pieces to books and journals, to newspaper articles, and is sadly in danger of dying out as funding dries up.

The Library is no longer updating the service as it has not received the funding to do so. This is a key resource for historians, teachers, students and so many more in their studies of Australian History, without it we are disadvantaging these thousands upon thousands of researchers.

Finally, Screen Australia and the ABC/SBS. Cuts to both the federal government's key funding body for the screen production industry and our two national broadcasters mean we are at a great danger of losing years of growth in the Australian Screen Industry. The ABC lost over $250 million from its budget over five years.  

SLOW DEATH by a million cuts to the ABC

since the election of the Abbott/Turnbull Government

WAKE UP ABC !!! pic.twitter.com/4awoWG1bpb

— TOM IN OZ (@SirThomasWynne) July 11, 2016

Screen Australia suffered three funding cuts in two years. This is a direct result of the Coalition's disregard for the arts industry and culture and will lead to less Australian produced content debuting on both the large and small screens.

Worryingly, the ALP has remained silent when asked whether they would refund Screen Australia and whilst they would refund the ABC to an extent, it does not reach the levels pre-­Abbott’s first budget.

Our premier funding body for Australian film and TV projects is under threat as there is no one left to fight for it, and the ABC, facing "death by a thousand cuts" will slowly drift in its local content creation if we don’t reverse the changes made in the last three years.

What was once a vibrant artisanal culture, fostered by a federal government that fully funded new and innovative screen and theatre projects, is under threat as we re -elect a mob with no interest in keeping our collective identity and culture alive.

https://independentaustralia.net/art/art-display/will-the-new-turnbull-government-continue-killing-off-our-arts-industry,9248

The Australia Council's 2017 report Making Art Work found that "in the financial year 2014-15, Australian practising professional artists earned average gross incomes of $48,400". 

That income is made up of a mix of creative income, arts-related income, and non-arts-income.

The report also states that "artists' income from creative work in their chosen profession is far below that earned by similarly qualified practitioners in other professions".

While artists continue to be underpaid and exploited, the avenue of pursuing art stays closed to many.

 

Read more:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-07/australian-artists-on-making-a-li...

My guess is that the artists earning figure of $48,400 is inflated by the income-likes of Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Geofrey Rush (before he got hanged by the press). Remove the famous and infamous actors and the real earning by the average artist falls to less than a couple of small dog food bags per week. Some are lucky. I know some artists over 50 who still live with their mother. And it's her who looks after them, rather than them looking after the old woman. We all need a lucky break. 

http://www.yourdemocracy.net.au/drupal/node/30293