Announced officially on Monday 30 January in the Gershwin Room of St Kilda’s Esplanade Hotel in Melbourne, the Labor government’s much-anticipated National Cultural Policy introduces a raft of sweeping bureaucratic changes and new funding initiatives.

Characterising the previous decade as one marked by the global pandemic and “calculated neglect”, Prime Minster Anthony Albanese insisted that “the arts cannot be left to those who can afford to do it.”

Photo © Hannah Busing / Unsplash

Under a $286m Revive plan, the Australia Council for the Arts is to be rebranded Creative Australia, which will then receive almost two-thirds of the new funding. Creative Australia’s governing body will continue to be called the Australia Council, said Arts Minister Tony Burke, who also committed to a State of Culture report to be released every three years.

Australia Council CEO Adrian Collette said the policy was a transformational step in the evolution of the Australia Council. “Creative Australia will be an even bigger, bolder champion and investor in Australian arts and creativity.”

Charged with expanding and modernising the Australia Council’s work, Creative Australia will serve as the government’s principal arts investment and advisory body. Four new bodies...