While Minister for Mistakes, Garret, is off promoting arts, Mr Rudd, who obtained power with the aid of a bevy of fawning artists is cutting arts funding. Of course, 50 million dollars is a small cut, compared to the amount of cash Rudd will suck out of the industry with a number of reforms, but who cares? He still has the support.
===Update
Rudd is making many more cuts, but he has spared one item from the slash.
KEVIN Rudd has approved funds for a $2.6 million shrine to the Australian Labor Party as he prepares to announce savage spending cuts in the May budget…
The proposed Tree of Knowledge “Memorial Site’’, in outback Queensland’s Barcaldine, would pay homage to the formation of the ALP in the 1891 Great Shearer’s Strike.
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National plan aims to 'resurrect' arts
Sarah Smiles
ARTS Minister Peter Garrett has unveiled plans for a national cultural strategy that he says will turn back the "dark days" of the Howard government when the arts were ignored.
State and territory arts representatives met the former Midnight Oil frontman yesterday, and agreed to help create more live music venues and increase support for indigenous and digital art.
Mr Garrett admitted that he was passionate about live music, given his rock star background, but said arts and culture across the board needed to be resurrected in Australian society.
"Australia culture is something that we've tended not to celebrate and advance. We had a period, the dark days if you like, where ideas of culture weren't being discussed, they weren't being explored at the national level," he said. "We think it's time for a change."
He said it was a "brand new day" for arts and culture in Australia because Labor had secured strong agreement between the Commonwealth and the states.
Speaking with reporters after the annual Cultural Ministers Council, Mr Garrett said the digital industry had been particularly neglected under the Howard government and that states and territories had made a commitment to supporting it.
They also agreed to consider changing laws to establish more live music precincts, a contentious issue in many cities where residents complain about the noise.
While Mr Garrett was upbeat about the future for arts, he admitted his portfolio would face cuts as the Rudd Government attempted to tackle rising inflation and improve efficiency. "There are fiscal disciplines that operate across the portfolios of the Commonwealth that apply equally to us," he said. Galleries and performing arts festivals that have had their budgets cut would just have to "adjust".
This includes Croc Fest, a successful educational festival for children in remote indigenous communities.
Opposition arts spokeswoman Sharman Stone criticised Mr Garrett for promoting culture when the arts budget was being cut by up to a reported $40 million. "It's extraordinary when an arts minister who has been done over by the razor gang again and again over the last three months, now talks about the importance of culture," she said.
Ms Stone questioned whether Australia lacked good live performing venues. She also said major arts institutions were "holding their breath" to see if they too would face cuts.
She said the arts had "flowered" under the Howard government.
But ACT Arts Minister Jon Stanhope told reporters that the meeting with Mr Garrett had been a "new" and "enlightened" forum.
Mr Garrett presented a "breath of fresh air" after the former government, which had opposed a national approach to the arts, said a State Government official who attended the meeting.
"He's passionate about things — he wants to do things," the official said.
"The other ministers felt that the previous federal minister (Rod Kemp) had been blocking (initiatives). The former government hadn't wanted a national approach."
Labor icon spared the razor
Andrew Bolt
Labor finds one tree that must not be pruned:
KEVIN Rudd has approved funds for a $2.6 million shrine to the Australian Labor Party as he prepares to announce savage spending cuts in the May budget…
The proposed Tree of Knowledge “Memorial Site’’, in outback Queensland’s Barcaldine, would pay homage to the formation of the ALP in the 1891 Great Shearer’s Strike.
But other tributes to our history - and other regional grants - aren’t strangely less worthy of Labor’s concern:
In the first act of the Rudd government’s razor gang, $14.4 million in advertising, a $147.5 million regional funding program and generous grants to sporting groups will be scrapped.
They include $3 million for a fishing hall of fame, $25 million for the Australian National Rugby Academy in Brisbane, $10 million for a rugby league hall of fame, and $5 million for a new watering system for Melbourne’s Flemington Racecourse.
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