In an ABC Radio National interview Senator Fifield confirmed he would not overturn the hugely unpopular funding reforms.

With the announcement of Prime Minster Malcolm Turnbull’s first ministerial reshuffle on Sunday artists across the country reacted with relief at the news that Senator George Brandis would no longer hold sway over Australia’s cultural coffers. However, newly sworn-in Minister for the Arts Mitch Fifield has dashed the hopes of many in the arts community by indicating he will stay true to former Arts Minister Brandis’ largely unpopular vision for arts subsidy centred on the newly created National Programme for Excellence in the Arts (NPEA).

Speaking in an ABC National Radio interview yesterday Minister Fifield acknowledged the tremendous outcry from artists across the country who fear the NPEA will devastate the vibrancy of the Australian arts ecology with its apparently biased skew towards the 28 Major Performing Arts organisations. “I hear what some organisations are saying,” the Minister said, before vaguely describing his ambitions for the NPEA as,“looking to see if we can do some innovative and different things. That’s the objective.”

Minister Fifields loyalty to the new funding strategy is perhaps unsurprising. During senate hearings earlier this year when Labor, Green and...