In May 2023, the Victorian Legislative Council Economy and Infrastructure Committee resolved to inquire into, monitor and report on the cultural and creative industries in Victoria.

The inquiry’s terms of reference, however, identify a much narrower set of concerns: Victoria’s share of national arts and cultural spending; urban and regional disparities; COVID-19’s impact.

Fortunately, substantial work has already been undertaken in the areas the Committee has identified:

Let’s think bigger:

  • How have Victorian artists’ living and working patterns changed as a result of the cost of living crisis? Do professional networks, cultural infrastructure and presentation opportunities exist where artists and organisations have had to relocate? How many artists are considering terminating, or have already terminated, their practice in response? What is the cost to their livelihood and mental health, and what is the cost to Victoria? 
  • How are Victorian artists and arts organisations currently using artificial intelligence? How many have had intellectual property stolen – single artworks, or an entire lifetime’s work – by tech companies for absorption into generative AI operations? Which sectors of Victoria’s cultural and creative industries are most critically at risk of IP and income loss?
  • How will current major capital infrastructure investment empower artists and Victoria’s cultural and creative industries in the future, and how does this accord with any feasibility work or business cases that were prepared ahead of that investment?
  • While the pandemic period made arts experiences more accessible for many artists and audiences, how might the Victorian Government best ensure an ever-increasing level of accessibility to arts experiences? 
  • What has the impact of the pandemic been on the cultural and gender diversity of creative and cultural industry employment and arts programming? 
  • Recognising that only a tiny proportion of practising artists and creative organisations ever receive Victorian Government grants, while effective policy empowers everyone’s work, what opportunities and priorities should guide this year’s policy work?
  • What level of Victorian Government investment is needed to ensure Victoria can restore its leading position as Australia’s state of the arts, and how best to target it?
  • Beyond investment, what other levers – taxation, for example, as in the upcoming NSW Government Cultural Tax Reform Summit – are available to the Victorian Government?

Test Pattern’s full submission emphasises:

  • Approaching budget considerations with great confidence and pride, securing truly ambitious levels of funding to support the artists who create our future;
  • Opportunities to champion one of the key principles of the Creative Victoria Act 2017  – that “all individuals should be free to express their ideas and opinions through the arts and creative industries” – at a time when artists expressing deep concern for atrocities across the globe are being harassed and targeted in deliberately career-damaging ways. Political leaders must make it clear that attacks on artists’ livelihoods, career prospects and representation are not acceptable, speaking personally wherever possible to those who systematically harass artists;
  • Working hard to restore Victoria’s leading position as Australia’s state of the arts.

>>> Submissions close on Friday 31 January 2025