Our brief commentary on the Federal Budget

Contemporary Music funding – excellent! A much needed and most welcome uplift of $30.9 million in new funding will amplify Australia’s music industry. The Australian Music Industry Package is designed to bring more live music to Australian communities including an increase in tour funding ($500K per annum).

What we found the most exciting was to see $2.7m over five years from 2019-20 to establish a national Indigenous Contemporary Music development program – this will go a long way to increasing the representation across our stages. $85.0m for an Aboriginal Arts and Cultures Gallery in Adelaide will also serve as a great initiative.

There’s also an additional $8 million for maintenance and capital works projects at Australia’s National Collecting Institutions and seed funding of $10 million over four years to establish the National Library of Australia’s (NLA) Digitisation Fund.

Sure, it wasn’t exactly what we’d hoped for but it’s a good step forward and the Government should be congratulated for some solid pluses in an environment in which the broad community benefits of the arts are not widely valued.

A Media Release Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Mitch Fifield, on the 2019-20 Budget can be found here.