Parliamentary Inquiry into Cultural and Creative Industries and Institutions
Securing economic, social and cultural benefits for all Australians with a 21st century approach to culture and creativity
ANA warmly welcomes the broad scope of this Inquiry, inclusive of cultural and creative industries and institutions and making particular mention of Indigenous, regional, rural and community based organisations. A New Approach (ANA) shares this view of a broad range of cultural and creative opportunities being relevant to all Australians, right across the country.
Middle Australians — middle-aged, middle-income swing voters — have told us that imagination, belonging and inspiration all grow out of engagement with arts, culture and creativity. They believe that these opportunities are fundamental to being Australian, and even to being human. Many also believe these opportunities are essential to developing skills for, and jobs in, our 21st century workplaces. These clear insights were identified through an independent qualitative study of perceptions of arts, culture and creativity that ANA commissioned in early 2020, just weeks before Covid-19 was declared a pandemic.
COVID-19 has obviously accelerated change and amplified challenges within creative and cultural industries and institutions. It has also highlighted the many ways in which they bring us together, enabling expression and generating jobs and income. Tellingly, we are turning to cultural products to help us make sense of this once-in-a-century experience: one of the first international studies of how Covid-19 is changing digital consumption habits found that, alongside searching for updates about Covid-19 and listening to music, there’s been a dramatic increase in people watching films and television shows about pandemics.
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is urging nations to ‘build back better’. Informed by this, and noting the targeted industry packages announced throughout 2020, ANA’s submission identifies the near-future recovery responses needed in the context of Covid-19, but also describes the medium term actions required to address the underlying issues and seize the opportunities.
What actions are needed?
ANA recommends the following three actions to this inquiry for consideration, designed to
improve access and participation opportunities for all Australians; inform a contemporary
approach to cultural and creative industry development; and address Covid-19 recovery.
- Champion a National Arts, Culture and Creativity Plan
- Initiate a Productivity Commission inquiry into the role of creativity in 21st century
industry development, jobs and innovation. - Develop a targeted industry package in the May 2021 federal budget to pilot and/or
scale-up digitally-rich, ‘antifragile’ business models suitable for a with-COVID environment for the cultural and creative industries.
For the full submission text, download the PDF.