The Arts Minister is unable to match Greens and Labor’s commitment to improve support for Australian artists.

In recent days, both Labor and the Greens have offered outstanding commitments to support the arts community if elected in July, answering the huge outcry from an Australian arts community that has suffered devastating cuts and financial mismanagement under the Abbott-Turnbull administration. It is perhaps unsurprising, therefore, that the current Government’s Arts Minister, Senator Mitch Fifield, was subject to a trouncing at this afternoon’s ArtsPeak National Arts debate. However, it wasn’t his opposing candidates, Shadow Arts Minister Mark Dreyfus and Greens Arts Spokesperson Adam Bandt, nor the packed-house audience who left Fifield with political egg on his face, but rather the Arts Minister himself.  

Proceedings were relatively convivial, with very little mud slinging required, thanks to the coalition’s lack of strategy for the future of Australian arts. Fifield’s attempts to defend the Government’s bleak track record with the creative sectors held little sway with the artists and arts-minded who attend the sold out event today in Melbourne. On a number of occasions during the debate, the Arts Minister promised to “consult with the sector” –...