The Shorten Government has pledged to inject over $161 million into the arts over the next four years.

The Labor Party are the latest political big hitter to make major pledges to increase arts funding ahead of next month’s Federal election. The Greens and the newly established Arts Party have also both put the arts high on their political agendas in recent weeks. A Shorten Labor Government, if elected in July, has promised to “restore the essential role of the arts and creative industries to their rightful place in Australia’s cultural and economic life.” Shadow Arts Minister Mark Dreyfus publically pledged last month that Labour would restore the Australia Council’s cut funding if elected, however, the new policy goes even further, promising over $161 million in additional arts funding over the next four years. 

Labor’s arts strategy, announced this evening, is in direct response to the “chaos and cuts for the arts” during the Abbott-Turnbull administration that has created one of the most financially unstable environments for Australian artists since the establishment of the Australia Council in the late 1960s. “Labor has a plan to fix the damage and restore our creative industries to...