The deadline for the Parliamentary Inquiry into Australia’s creative and cultural industries and institutions was Thursday 22 October 2020, and many hundreds of documents are still in the process of being published.

While submissions have now closed, the work itself has only just begun.

With so many artists and organisations having contributed, the Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts have plenty to get on with – and so do we!

So, what next?

• Hundreds of artists and organisations have put a lot of time and expertise into this process. So let’s read through the submissions to gain valuable insights into artists’ practice and organisations’ challenges (noting that more are being uploaded each week). There’s so much gold here. Given the scope of the Inquiry spans the entire creative economy, there’s also great submissions from ad and creative agencies, accountants, lawyers, architects, unions, agents, philanthropists, academics and economists;
• Let’s make best use of these submissions in our ongoing advocacy – with a special focus on the members of the Standing Committee overseeing the Inquiry. Here’s a guide to their interests and involvements for some hints on might they be looking for. No doubt they’d love to hear from people in their electorates, ready to talk about what arts and culture means to them locally, and ready to quote from relevant submissions as they do. If you’re a membership-based organisation, be sure to load your submission into your next mailout, and encourage all of your members to keep using it as your sector’s go-to specialist advocacy tool. You’ve put all that work in, after all!;
• We can also follow the live stream of presentations and questioning during the two days of hearings on Friday 13 November and Friday 4 December, where a range of artists and organisations will be invited to speak to their submissions alongside the Office for the Arts and the Australia Council.

Let’s keep this discussion alive.

Let’s boost Australia’s pandemic recovery by bringing those submissions to life, centring arts and culture in the important work of creating Australia’s future.

IMAGE: Nina Canell, Brief Syllable (Thick) (2016), acrylic, subterranean electricity cable, concrete; installation view, Future Eaters, curated by Charlotte Day, MUMA 2017.