The Greens’ vision for the arts in the state

A big priority for the Greens this election is supporting small-to-medium sized local music venues to help them remain open.

We’re seeing beloved venues like the Zoo having to close down due to the rising cost of insurance and commercial rent, and due to young people having less money to spend because of the ever-growing cost-of-living crisis. This is making it harder and harder for local artists to have somewhere to play.

The Greens want to see the State Government step in and buy buildings across Queensland and lease them out to not-for-profits and councils for creative industries and artists to use. With publicly-owned spaces for the arts, we can keep our local scene alive and create more jobs in the sector.

When you consider, for example, that the current Labor State Government has contributed $1.1 billion in public funds to the greyhound and horse racing industry since 2015, and readily provided financial concessions and a secret 99-year lease of riverfront land to Star Casino, it is clear that the lack of support to Queensland’s art and cultural scene is not the result of scarce resources. Instead this is a political choice by Labor to deprioritise the arts, and fund cultural and public life according to the interests of their big donors, not ordinary people. There is nothing in the LNP’s history to suggest they will do any better.

That’s what the major parties’ priorities are right now. Cultural investment reduced down to gambling, racing and big international spectacles – leaving local artists behind.

The current economic and cultural landscape is presenting growing challenges to everyone who is needed to ensure the continued success of the arts: artists, organisers, organisers and promoters, production and front-of-house workers, venue owners and punters. If we want to see our arts scene continue to contribute to the richness of our lives and to the public good, we must support it to do so.

The Greens will guarantee existing funding levels to grants programs, arts organisations, major events and cultural institutions as the bare minimum. The Greens will never support cuts to arts funding, investment funds or state supported events. We also want to see sustainable arts governance, which is why we want to expand access to auspicing programs for organisations wanting to better support their volunteers and to bring in paid mentorship programs for First Nations and young people wanting to step up into arts leadership.

We also support minimum public arts investments as part of large-scale public infrastructure and precinct level development that ensures major urban transformations are accompanied by both local activation and permanent arts installations.

The Greens are also committed to sustainable investment in Queensland’s cultural landmarks – including new ones like a dedicated and self-determined First Nations Cultural Precinct in Brisbane – and sustainable funding for our key cultural infrastructure. Whether it’s in Brisbane or our regions, theatres, museums, galleries and performance spaces are a fundamental part of our communities’ fabric.

We are fully committed to funding the priority initiatives of QMusic, Screen Queensland and other peak arts bodies, including a minimum $35 million in funding support over four years to support:

• developing a Queensland Music Blueprint
• ‘Be There Live’ event and venue support, to support festivals, venues and events
• a government procurement policy to prioritise and set targets for commissioning home-grown talent
• QMusic’s Youth In Music Initiative
• QMusic’s Mentally Healthy Industry, partnered with national body, Support Act
• a First Nations Music Plan
• Queensland Indigenous Industry Initiatives
• a Queensland Regional Music Office in Townsville
• a Queensland Regional Music Fund and a Regional Music Infrastructure Initiative, and
• Waltons Store building in Fortitude Valley becoming the new home for Queensland’s music, game-making and screen industries.

But, perhaps most importantly, we’ll tackle the cost of living crisis by freezing and capping rents, capping the price of essential groceries and making healthcare in Queensland truly free. If Queenslanders, particularly young Queenslanders, don’t even have enough money to pay the rent each week, they don’t have enough money to support the arts or pursue their own creative pursuits.

Last federal election, the Greens announced a policy to pay artists a living wage. Under this pilot program, 10,000 Australian artists would be funded with a full-time income so they can focus on creating art. We will also institute a sick pay guarantee program modelled on the successful Victorian Government pilot that would enable freelancers, working artists and casual workers to access payments to compensate them for work lost due to illness.

Our amazing candidates and volunteers have now had one-on-one conversations with over 30,000 voters across the state. We’ve heard from countless working artists, and the top things we keep hearing that would help them aren’t arts policies: it’s affordable homes, a functioning safety net and an industrial relation system that protects their rights at work, gets their invoices paid on time and makes sure there are enforceable minimums payable.

Expanding access to arts programs, grants and venues is very important to sustaining Queensland’s cultural ecosystem – but, at the end of the day, the vast majority of working artists sustain themselves on short-term contracts, bit work and occasional grants, with many working other jobs too.

The Greens’ plan to cap rents, offer low-rate mortgages through a public bank, fully fund public schools and TAFE, and make sure everyone has access to a bulk-billing doctor and 20 free psychology appointments every year, will make a huge difference to the thousands of working artists in Queensland.

We’ll take real measures to ease the economic pain for everyday people, so you can focus on what’s important – making art.

It’s absolutely critical that we address the cost-of-living crisis and housing crisis because ensuring every Queenslander has their basic needs met is a crucial part of ensuring our arts scene flourishes here in Queensland.

This is the first in a series of opinion pieces from Queensland politicians in the lead-up to the Queensland state election on Saturday 26 October 2024. Look for additional articles from Labor and the Liberal National Party of Queensland in the coming days.