Today we gathered Australia's leading artists and tax experts, with a shared mission to find new ways to protect and support our nation's creative and cultural sector.
As Ministers we have decided to make co-ordinated submissions to the Federal Government for the next round of its National Cultural Policy in order to highlight the ideas that have emerged from the discussions.
We thank the Federal Minister for the Arts Tony Burke for attending today's summit and expressing his openness to considering tax reform as part of the Albanese Government's next national cultural policy for which consultation begins next year.
Key ideas discussed today were exempting arts prizes from taxable income, tax offsets for performance, greater incentives for philanthropic donations and extending incentives that exist in other sectors to the cultural sector.
Australian artists make an enormous economic and cultural contribution to our nation, yet our creatives are under intense financial pressure from rising costs, cost-of-living impacts on audiences and increasing competition from overseas content via streaming and social media algorithms.
That means artists' wages are in decline, arts organisations are losing money and creatives are struggling to reach local audiences.
Government funding will always be part of the solution, but this alone will not keep up with rising costs, the scale of the challenge and the many opportunities our cultural sector presents.
One of the other big levers that could be pulled is tax reform. Annual funding comes and goes with budget cycles but structural changes to our tax system could boost culture for generations to come.
Tax reform is not easy, but we are at a unique moment where crisis meets opportunity.
