Labor announced its arts policy ahead of the federal election, with a launch event at The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda, Melbourne, on Saturday and a pledge from Labor Spokesperson for the Arts Tony Burke that a Bill Shorten government will put “cultural policy back in the centre of decision making.”

The party announced a refreshed take on the Creative Australia policy – launched under Julia Gillard in 2013 and scrapped by the Coalition – which includes an $8 million investment over four years for a national Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theatre company and support for existing First Nations companies to become major performing arts companies, $1 million of annual funding for regional arts initiatives, a restoration of Australia Council for the Arts funding to pre-2014 levels and a fairer distribution of funding to support the small to medium and independent sectors, as well as literature and visual arts, and investment in video games development.

Image © jannoon028, freepik.com

“Arts is a whole ecology, from the majors, the small to medium companies and independent artists and if you break that ecology it hurts the whole sector,” Burke said, taking aim at what he...