national cultural policy

SYDNEY, Australia — A new chapter unfolds for Australia’s music community with the activation of Creative Australia, the centerpiece of the federal government’s National Cultural Policy, Revive, which its architects hope will turn Australia into a music powerhouse.
On Thursday (Aug. 24), as the Creative Australia Act 2023 came into effect, federal minister for the arts Tony Burke officially unveiled Creative Australia and its new board, led by chairman Robert Morgan and deputy chair Wesley Enoch.

Creative Australia is an expanded and modernized Australia Council for the Arts which, Burke says, “will bring the drive, direction and vision that Australian artists have been calling out for.”

The government agency’s CEO Adrian Collette will chair the newly-appointed Music Australia council, an eight-strong board of artists and music industry experts, which includes legendary concerts promoter Michael Chugg and was unveiled earlier in the week.

“Pleasingly,” comments Evelyn Richardson, CEO of Live Performance Australia, “Creative Australia comes to life with the restoration of funding that was lost under the previous government’s budget cuts in 2014, as well as new initiatives such as Music Australia and Creative Workplaces.”

To fully “realize its ambition and promise,” she continues, “it will be important that current and future governments are committed to greater investment in our cultural and creative industries through Creative Australia.”

The music industry has long advocated for a new body to help Australia’s commercial music sector reach new heights at home and abroad.

When Anthony Albanese’s center-left Labor government was formed in 2022, ending the nine-year administration of the center-right Liberal Party, hope turned to action.

In the months that followed the federal election, Burke welcomed key representative bodies of the Australian contemporary music industry leaders to consult on the policy, from which Revive was shaped.

In January, prime minister Albanese presented Revive to the industry and the public, and with it, the promise of a new Music Australia, a reimagined national music development agency that would support and invest in the development of Australian contemporary music.

The policy is an ambitious year-long action plan, structured around five interconnected pillars and underpinned by a commitment for new, additional investment totaling A$286 million (US$202 million) — record levels of arts funding. Music Australia alone is funded to the tune of A$69 million ($44 million) over four years.

The establishment of Music Australia is a “landmark moment for Australia’s music industry,” says Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS. “It represents for the first time in the nation’s history that we have had a long-term commitment from government to work in partnership with industry to make Australia a music powerhouse,” he adds.

“We look forward to working with Music Australia chair and Creative Australia CEO Adrian Collette and the rest of the council to fully realize the cultural, economic and social benefits of a vibrant, healthy and sustainable music industry accessible to all Australians, and the world.”

The Creative Australia Bill, which lays the legal framework for the existence of Music Australia, passed parliament and was enshrined into law in June. Today’s development was a formality, but an important one.

“Now it all comes down to execution,” comments ARIA and PPCA CEO Annabelle Herd. “Now is the time to think big, consult wide, and deliver the solutions that Australian recording artists and industry professionals deserve; restoring the infrastructure to help them achieve sustainable careers at home and providing a greater platform for them to reach new audiences by cutting through an increasingly saturated market.”

Australia’s contemporary music industry, she continues, “is an incredible incubator for world-class talent. But for the world to discover that talent, we need the right strategic support and investment. There’s no time to waste.”

Work is “already underway” to establish Music Australia and Creative Workplaces within Creative Australia, reads a statement from the Creative Australia office.

In 2024, the inaugural First Nations-led board will be established, building on the Australia Council’s 50-year history of investment in First Nations Arts and Culture. And in 2025, Writers Australia will be established.

Read the full National Cultural Policy here.

Music Australia Council:Fred Alale, co-founder and chair of African Music and Cultural Festivals Inc.Lisa Baker, manager of creative cultural development, City of PlayfordDanielle Caruana (Mama Kin), artist and founder/director of The Seed FundMichael Chugg, founder of Chugg EntertainmentPetrina Convey, owner and director of UNITY. MgmtFred Leone, artistNathan McLay, CEO of Future ClassicDr Sophie Payten (Gordi), artist

Australia Council Board of Creative Australia:Adrian Collette AMRobert Morgan (Chair)Wesley Enoch AM (Deputy Chair)Rosheen GarnonStephen FoundChristine Simpson Stokes AMPhilip WatkinsAlexandra DimosCaroline BowditchCourtney StewartKitty TaylorLindy LeeCaroline WoodAmanda Jackes

BRISBANE, Australia – It’s a new year, and one filled with fresh optimism in the Australian music industry after the federal government presented its national cultural policy — a five-year action plan that puts in place sorely-needed infrastructure, investment and ideas.
Prime minister Anthony Albanese and arts minister Tony Burke were on hand Monday (Jan. 30) for the launch of Revive, which, as its title suggests, establishes the groundwork for what government and industry hopes will facilitate a robust music space.

It’s a document years in the making. And it’s stuffed with strategic and policy investment for contemporary music, many of them ideas put forward by a united front of music industry organizations, 18 in total.

Revive will provide a much-needed boost of strength, energy and funding into our Arts community:✔️Establishing Creative Australia✔️ The establishment of Music Australia✔️ $70 million injection into Music Australia✔️ Supporting the artist as a worker and a creator https://t.co/56aXgFrPt9— APRA AMCOS (@APRAAMCOS) January 30, 2023

Among the cornerstones of Revive is the creation of Music Australia, within Creative Australia. Government will find nearly $70 million for Music Australia, which will support and invest in the development of Australian contemporary music, and which Albanese is keen to see launch in 2023.

Speaking at the presentation at Melbourne’s Esplanade Hotel, Albanese gave the music community a well-deserved thank-you. He also mapped out a timeline for legislation which would enforce local content quotas on streaming platforms; a regional push for the Double J network, part of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation; and a 50% boost for Sounds Australia, which supports homegrown artists taking their music to the world.

“Today is a bright moment for (the music) sector but it’s also an overdue one. You have endured a decade in which opportunity wasn’t so much missed as thrown away. Capped by the years of the pandemic,“ he says.

Revive, he continues, “puts the arts back where they’re meant to be – at the heart of our national life.”

Revive is structured around five interconnected pillars, First Nations First; A Place For Every Story; Centrality of the Artist; Strong Institutions and Reaching the Audience. And with it, a commitment for new, additional investment totaling A$286 million over four years.

“This is about our soul, this is about our identity,” Albanese adds. “It is so important because it’s about who we are and being able to express ourselves. It is literally through the arts that we build our identity as a nation and a people.”

When the center-left Labor government was formed in 2022, ending the nine-year administration of the center-right Liberal Party, Burke made an early commitment to develop a cultural roadmap through consultation with the music industry.

ARIA welcomes the new National Cultural Policy announced today by the Hon. Tony Burke MP and the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and Arts. https://t.co/w2hlbCkxju— ARIA (@ARIA_Official) January 30, 2023

This policy, and its instructions, “restores the place of art, of entertainment of culture, for all Australians,” Burke says.

Artists and the industry behind the music are “essential workers” he adds.

“You touch our hearts and you are a A$17 billion contributor to our economy. You create art and you create exports. You make works and you provide work. You are entertaining, you are essential, you are required.”

For video streaming platforms, a timeline is locked in. In the second half of this year, legislation will be introduced to the parliament and in July next year, Australian content obligations will apply to the streaming companies.

Revive pledges that, through binding rules on content, Australian music “remains visible, discoverable and easily accessible across platforms to all Australians, driven by a vibrant, agile, sustainable and globally facing local music industry.”

👏Today we welcome the National Cultural Policy, bold new chapter and a transformational moment for Council as we work to build Creative Australia, a new First Nations body, Music Australia, Writers Australia, and the Centre for Arts Workplaces.https://t.co/fRtBTMEwID— Australia Council (@AusCouncilArts) January 30, 2023

With the publication of Revive, the music industry is celebrating an ideal start to the week, and the year.

“The government has responded to our collective call, which I think is a real positive,” Dean Ormston, CEO of APRA AMCOS tells Billboard. “For the first time ever, there’s a whole of government recognition of us as an industry. They’re actually referring to us as an industry for the first time in my living memory. Which I think is an enormous win.”

Though the industry remains largely unsure of what are the next steps, conversations with government in the days ahead should clear-up matters.

Regardless, the opportunities are laid out. “There’s an enormous opportunity in terms of how music Australia interfaces with industry and specific government portfolios,” says Ormston. “There’ll be an evolving opportunity to have a much stronger relationship with portfolios, like education. We’ve already called out, for instance, that Music Australia should have a policy and a strategy related to songwriting in schools. That would be the beginning of the foodchain and the pipeline to improving our export opportunities.”

Although the industry will need to wait for the presentation of the May budget to see full detail, the federal government “is listening and responding,” says Stephen Wade, chair of ALMBC, whose hundreds of members represent all areas of the live music sector.

ARIA and PPCA CEO Annabelle Herd welcomed the policy. “It is true that Australian music is facing a crisis in streaming and that it is harder than ever for Australian musicians to have a charting hit in Australia,” she comments.

“We thank the government for acknowledging the need for greater support of Australian commercial music as a business that is facing key issues surrounding discoverability and export. It is our hope that the introduction of Music Australia will make important strides toward providing solutions to these issues, including a reassessment of commercial radio quotas and streaming policy.”

Today we launched our National Cultural Policy ‘REVIVE’. One of it’s main policy components is the establishment of Creative Australia. pic.twitter.com/nlc8judwUD— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) January 30, 2023

Read the document here in full.