Money will be redirected to the Ministry of Arts over four years to fund new Excellence in the Arts programme.

A major restructuring in the way Australian arts are subsidised was announced in Tuesday’s Federal Budget that, if approved by the Senate, will see $104.7 million stripped from the Australia Council over the next four years, and redirected to the Ministry for the Arts. A new National Programme for Excellence in the Arts, that would be administrated by Senator Brandis’ Attorney-General’s Department, is to be established to “deliver on a number of government priorities including proceeding national access to quality arts and cultural experiences.”

An additional $7.2 million deduction will be made to the Australia Council’s funding between 2015 and 2019 in efficiency savings, meaning in total a reduction of nearly 13% to Australia’s principal funding body for arts and culture over each of the next four years. Despite these cost-cutting measures, the government expects to spend $11 million more on recreation and culture initiatives in the next financial year, with 10% going to “arts and cultural heritage” budgets in 2015/16.

Screen Australia is also to be subject to cuts of $3.6 million over the same four year period, although...