Writing WA applauds the unveiling of Australia’s new National Cultural Policy, Revive, which was announced Monday 30 January and promises to significantly boost investment into writing across Australia.
Launched by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke, the new policy sees the reversal of the devastating 2015 funding cuts to the Australia Council, bringing millions in funding back to arts organisations and individuals.
Highlights for the writing sector include the establishment of “Creative Australia” which will replace the current Australia Council for the Arts. Within this, a new body called “Writers Australia” will receive $19.3 million in funding to:
- better support writers and illustrators to create new works
- invest in a network of key organisations delivering public value for Australia
- develop global publishing market opportunities
- introduce a National Poet Laureate
- deliver the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards
- expand the Lending Rights scheme to include e-books and audiobooks, and
- introduce mandatory Australia content quotas for digital TV streaming services.
Writing WA is pleased to contribute to a joint statement from the National Writers Centre Network (NWCN), a coalition of state literary organisations, in welcoming the new policy.
Jessica Alice, CEO of Writers SA and spokesperson for the NWCN, said the Revive policy, “is a turning point for literary policy and represents a new level of commitment by a federal government to improve the working conditions and wages of writers.”
Chair of Writing WA, Guy Boyce, said he was thrilled about the opportunities the new policies will bring to writers in Western Australia.
“This is a pivotal moment for the writing sector in Australia – Revive is a genuinely exciting new policy, offering an injection of funding to an art form that has been desperately underfunded for many years by previous federal governments,” he said.
“The expansion of the Lending Rights scheme to include e-books and audiobooks is a tangible boost to author incomes, and we congratulate the Australian Society of Authors, and others in the sector, on this outcome after years of determined lobbying.
“Revive will deliver real benefits to writing organisations and individual creators over the next five years, and Writing WA is looking forward to working with Creative Australia and Writers Australia to help these benefits flow to West Australian writers.”
To read the full policy, visit the Australian Government website or click the link: https://www.arts.gov.au/documents/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place
Read the full NWCN statement here: https://writerssa.org.au/new-national-cultural-policy/