Push for Senate inquiry into Budget AusCo cuts

Australia's peak arts bodies have called for a Senate Inquiry into cuts to the Australia Council budget, a push backed by both Labor and the Greens.
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Shadow Minister for the Arts, Mark Dreyfus, Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and ArtsPeak Co-convenor Tamara Winikoff all made the call this week, saying a Senate inquiry was needed into the new National Programme for Excellence in the Arts.

The inquiry is needed to investigate why it is necessary to create a new arts bureaucracy under the control of Senator Brandis, said the Shadow Arts Minister in a statement.

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Richard Watts OAM is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, a Melbourne Fringe Festival Living Legend, and was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize in 2020. In 2021 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards Association. Most recently, Richard received a Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in June 2024. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts