At a time when strengthening the confidence of our most creative people is crucial to Australia’s future, we’d expect a pre-election budget to be filled with visionary commitments.
Instead, the arts narrative in last night’s Federal Budget 2022-23 is of decreases – a narrative we need to work hard to piece together among the various Budget Papers, Ministerial and Portfolio Budget Statements.
And where increases are announced, the Budget takes the curious step of folding last year’s money into the commitment, burdening that piecing-together work with comparisons to previous announcements to understand what’s now being presented as new money.
Let’s take a look at the decreases, increases, structural changes and lost opportunities, identifying helpful talking points for striking up conversations with candidates between now and mid-May…
IMAGE: Shutterstock for Arts Hub
ESTHER ANATOLITIS 