Maxim Boon, Arts Minister admits no consultation on funding reforms, Limelight, 28 May 2015

Senator Brandis confirms that neither the Australia Council or the arts community were warned of changes to funding. 

During his testimony before a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday, Arts Minister George Brandis, the architect of the recent major shake-up of arts funding in Australia, confirmed that he sought no consultation with the Australia Council, or any arts organisations before announcement in the 2015/16 Federal Budget that over $114 million would be siphoned from the Australia Council to fund a new government administered National Programme for Excellence in the Arts

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The details of the mechanisms that will be used to assess prospective applicants to the National Programme for Excellence in the Arts have remained elusive.  However, during questioning by Labor’s Jacinta Collins, Attorney-General’s Department Staff Member Sally Basser confirmed that the guidelines would be available by “the end of June or in early July”.

She also confirmed that the new programme would deliver its funding in three streams: endowments, to fund arts foundations; funding for international touring and “cultural diplomacy”, and an enigmatically titled “strategic stream”, which Basser described as “a key mechanism for driving outcomes against planned and developing priorities and to respond to opportunities, challenges and issues.”

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