Peter Garrett MP
Member for Kingsford Smith
Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Reconciliation and the Arts
The announcement by Arts Minister Kemp to direct significant additional funding to the Australia Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) for “the development of a training package to help visual artists work more closely with the commercial arts market” needs to be fully explained.
Minister Kemp should reconsider this decision as it has dramatically increased concerns within the arts sector because it’s unclear on what basis it was reached.
Why did the Minister seemingly ignore established arts bodies with developed programs for the delivery of professional and business advice to artists?
The Minister also needs to make clear the source of the $1.1 million announced on 3 August. Has the entire amount been appropriated from the Budget expense measure ‘Individual visual artists – enhancing business skills’, which allocated $6 million over four years and was trumpeted as an ‘alternative’ to a resale royalty scheme?
Answers to these questions are critical as there is insufficient publicly available information relating to AbaF’s activities and program outcomes.
As well it needs to be established whether or not the National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) were misled by the Minister’s office regarding an open and transparent tender process for the delivery of these services.
I have placed a number of questions on the Notice Paper to seek clarification of Minister Kemp’s action; in the meantime the Minister needs to immediately revisit this decision.