A sign behind the door of the women’s bathroom in the old Parliament House sums up the neglect of Australia’s cultural institutions. It is a plea to support the restoration of the Government Party Room, which is now the Australian Museum of Democracy. It is in the hands of visitors who can afford it.
One of the paradoxes of the last decade has been the failure of coalition governments to foster and protect institutions that protect the country’s history and culture. They are by definition conservative institutions, often founded by conservative governments. But cuts in funding, an “efficiency dividend” and a lack of interest have left them struggling.
Christos Tsiolkas has been appointed to a new expert advisory group to help steer the federal government’s new National Cultural Policy.credit:John Tiavis
The clock that once regulated the life of Congress has stopped (at various times) at the Museum of Democracy, and its underfunded patina can be seen in the National Library, Archives and Galleries.
This disrespect is partly the result of a failure to take culture seriously as a public good and a tendency to treat it as something contested in a zero-sum game that no one ultimately wins.
The Albanian government has appointed a seven-person expert advisory group to “provide comprehensive strategic advice” towards the formulation of a new national cultural policy. As the hundreds of responses to our policy survey show, there are many people who care deeply about what has been lost and are brimming with ideas about what needs to be done. But as last week’s jobs summit showed, it’s easy to overlook the hundreds of thousands of people who are often precariously and impactfully employed in the cultural and creative economy. .
A successful society is built on four main pillars. A powerful government agency that ensures the rule of law. Strong policies on land use and management. Population policies to ensure that people are educated, employed and supported. And then there is the cultural policy that binds and procrastinates citizens to make them understand the state.
Australia excelled on the first three, but has often suffered cultural decline. This is dangerous. Culture, manifested through art, literature, music, performance and festivals, has been shown time and again to be an early warning device of social change, cohesion and adaptation. It is also the glue that holds us together.
Most similar countries have ministries of culture, often related to education, media or heritage. A ministry designed to celebrate and expand the scope and nature of belonging.
In Australia, art is a proxy for this larger cultural realm. Artists who should be centered around original creative work feel marginalized and neglected. Over the past twenty years, art has been added to other ministries. Housed in the Departments of Communications, Environment, Local Government, Sports, Attorney General and now Employment.
