The National Cultural Policy, Revive, was launched by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Minister for the Arts Tony Burke on Monday 30 January. At the time, we wrote to you with a summary of the announcements most relevant to writers and illustrators. Now, we dissect the National Cultural Policy and analyse the measures that will most impact our members’ professional careers. 

Revive is a 5-year plan to renew and revive the arts sector with additional investment of $286 million over 4 years. The policy is underpinned by some refreshing and very welcome acknowledgments: that First Nations stories are at the centre of Australian art and culture, that our arts and culture build our national identity, that our artistic output is important to cultural diplomacy, and that our writers and artists are workers and deserve dignity and fair remuneration. While of course there is more to be done to address the sustainability of author and illustrator careers in Australia, we welcome this policy which puts essential foundations in place from which we can build a thriving literary industry.

At the centre of the National Cultural Policy is the establishment of Creative Australia (a revamped Australia Council) with restored and additional funding, and four new bodies to be established within its structure: 

• A First Nations-led board
• Music Australia
• Writers Australia
• The Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces 

Writers Australia (allocated $19.3 million in funding), is due to commence activities in 2025, and will:

• Support writers and illustrators to create new works
• Invest in a network of key organisations delivering public value for Australians
• Develop national industry initiatives and international markets to maximise exposure and access to global markets 
• Establish a national Poet Laureate to promote poetry and mentor up-and-coming poets 
• Deliver the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards. 

In our submission to the National Cultural Policy the ASA highlighted the fact that literature has been sidelined, underfunded, and needed a national plan and we are gratified by the response in Revive. The establishment of Writers Australia will allow better strategic engagement with all stakeholders – publicly funded, philanthropic and commercial – in an overall national vision for literature. The $19.3 million in funding represents an increase of investment in literature, and is a good start.

Writers Australia represents a real opportunity for literature: to embed and grow longer-term funding, to develop and modernise our industry and to build a framework for our sector for years to come. It will be able to commission much-needed research and advocate on behalf of literature. No one wants a repeat of the mistakes of the past, such as the abolished Book Council – it’s time for a reset. 

Revive focusses on broad structural change, and the detail of individual investment via grants or fellowships is left to future planning. We must not lose sight of the need to invest in creation and we will be advocating for a strong author voice on the Writers Australia Board, and the current spotlight on the financial challenges faced by individual writers and artists to be maintained.

Creative Australia will also invest in a works of scale fund ($19 million). The examples of “works of scale” in Revive include those works which have evolved to reach larger audiences such as “the way Secret River went from novel, to play, to television drama, The Drover’s Wife went from short story, to play, to feature film, and Cloudstreet went from novel to play to television series to opera”. We are keen to know more about the ways the works of scale fund may be accessed by authors.

Australia Council will host a briefing session about Writers Australia on February 9 at 3.30pm AEDT. Register to attend here.

Key to Revive is the recognition that First Nations stories are at the centre of Australia’s arts and culture. The Government has reaffirmed its commitment to implement the Uluru Statement from the Heart in full and announced the establishment of a First Nations-led Board within Creative Australia for autonomous and self-determined decision-making around funding, commencing activities in 2024. This body will set priorities, invest in and create works of scale and promote best practice cultural safety protocols. 

Other actions include: 

• $80 million investment to establish a National Aboriginal Art Gallery in Alice Springs to celebrate First Nations storytelling and cultural expression 
• $50 million investment in partnership with the WA government towards a world-class Aboriginal Culture Centre in Perth
• To preserve and safeguard First Nations languages, the government will establish a First Nations Languages Policy Partnership ($11 million) between First Nations representatives and Australian governments
• To recognise and protect First Nations’ traditional knowledge and cultural expressions, the Government will establish stand-alone legislation, including to address the harm caused by fake art and merchandise
• Government will pursue the return of First Nations ancestors and cultural heritage material from overseas and domestically the return of ancestor and secret sacred objects in Australia’s major museums.  

Australia’s leading Indigenous publisher, Magabala Books, which is an Aboriginal owned and led publishing house, was included as a case study in the Policy, modelling best practice for the publishing of First Nations stories.

The ASA warmly welcomed the decision to modernise and extend Lending Rights (PLR / ELR) to include digital formats under the schemes, with an additional $12.9 million in funding. As previously announced, this is a common-sense change that has been sought by the ASA for many years, supported by writers and illustrators and all industry stakeholders. This action will make a material difference to the lives of writers and illustrators, and we will bring you more details about the expanded scheme, including eligibility criteria, timelines and payment as they become available. Read our report on the introduction of Digital Lending Rights here.

A number of submissions made by individual creators and organisations to the National Cultural Policy called for the establishment of a National Poet Laureate to celebrate and elevate poetry within Australian society. We are pleased that the Government has listened, and will introduce the role of Poet Laureate through Writers Australia.

There is little detail about the position outlined in the Policy, other than that the Poet Laureate will “promote poetry and mentor up and coming poets.” We support the call by the First Nations Australian Writers Network for the first Poet Laureate to be a poet of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander heritage.

Encouragingly, the reality of individual creators’ lives is clearly recognised in the Policy, with an affirmation of the principle that creators should be fairly remunerated for their work. The ASA’s rates of pay are specifically mentioned: 

“Funding bodies should continue to affirm the principle that artists should be paid for their work, including through recognition of Awards, recommended rates of pay and codes of practice such as the Live Performance Award 2010, the Broadcasting Recorded Entertainment and Cinemas Award 2010, Australian Society of Authors rates of pay, Australian Writers Guild benchmarks, and the National Association for the Visual Arts Code of Practice.” 

Authors and illustrators will be all too familiar with requests to work for below minimum rates, or for free. We hope this acknowledgement within our National Cultural Policy will encourage you to negotiate with confidence for the remuneration you are entitled to.

It will be interesting to see the scope of the new Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces, which will be set up to provide advice on issues of pay, safety and welfare, to fully implement the Respect at Work report, to support the development of codes of conduct and to build capacity particularly for smaller organisations. 

The policy outlines that “individuals and organisations receiving government funding will be required to adopt and adhere to these standards as a condition of funding.” We will look for opportunities to enshrine fair rates of pay for writers and illustrators into standards set by the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces.

Revive affirms the principle that our national cultural collection ought to be representative of modern Australia. We know that the low earnings of creators and issues of access bar many marginalised voices from being heard. The ASA believes that Writers Australia will have a key role to play in investing in marginalised voices that would otherwise find it difficult or impossible to achieve publication. 

Other actions in Revive include: 

• Increase support for regional arts and culture through an increase to the Regional Arts Fund and continuation of Festivals Australia program
• Develop an Arts and Disability Associated Plan to enable people with a disability to participate fully in the cultural life of Australia
• Undertake a Multicultural Framework Review to ensure that policy settings and institutional frameworks support efforts to further strengthen social cohesion and inclusion across modern multicultural Australia. 

The ASA strongly objected to the Job-Ready Graduates reforms introduced by the former government, which resulted in a doubling of fees for some tertiary courses in the humanities. Given our concerns about the cost of humanities degrees becoming prohibitive, particularly for students from low SES backgrounds, and the potential loss of employment opportunities for writers who run creative writing and literature-related courses, we are pleased that Revive included a commitment to review the Job-Ready Graduates reforms. 

Below we extract some other announcements in Revive that we think our members may find noteworthy: 

• Copyright Agency administers the Resale Royalty Scheme and we were pleased to see this scheme enhanced to provide royalty payments to visual artists from the commercial sale of works internationally
• The ASA welcomes the Policy’s recognition of independent bookstores for the support they give to Australian creators; presenting a diverse range of work to readers
• Better security of funding for our national broadcasters, the ABC and SBS, by delivering 5 year funding terms and reinstating indexation for ABC funding
• In a move away from criticisms made of RISE funding and the former Minister George Brandis’ Catalyst fund, Revive embeds the core principle of arm’s length funding to ensure funding calls are not being made by the Minister of the day
• The Government will publish a State of Australian Cultural report every three years to measure the success of the National Cultural Policy and will review the policy in 5 years time
• Our national art collection will be better shared with the nation through loans to local and regional institutions
• While this Policy did not directly address copyright reforms, the Government committed to maintaining a  strong copyright framework and the Attorney-General has commenced a review of the effectiveness of our copyright enforcement regime
• Revive introduces requirements for Australian screen content on streaming platforms to ensure access to local stories. The details of quotas are not finalised but the new requirements are set to commence no later than 1 July 2024. Given the number of books adapted for the screen by streaming services, this is good news for authors too
• We are aware of the concerns voiced by libraries, researchers and writers over Trove and funding for national collection institutions generally. Future funding for collecting institutions such as libraries, museums, archives and galleries will be addressed in the May federal budget.
  
  

Creators battle financial insecurity and isolation and have felt ignored by government policy for a long time. Revive presents an opportunity. The language of respect and deep acknowledgment from the Government is a first restorative step, a vote of confidence in our writing community and a statement that we matter. The ASA will do everything we can to ensure this moment is seized to move the dial for authors and illustrators, as well as build the potential of our entire industry. 

“Respecting and defending [our cultural heroes] needs to be front and centre of government cultural policy: teaching our stories in schools, showcasing our films and television and games on screens, publishing Australian writers, ensuring our stages are commissioning Australian original work and promoting that work to global buyers.” -Clare Wright and Christos Tsiolkas

Read the National Cultural Policy in full here.