Even the winners have lost

Now that the dust has settled from the latest Australia Council organisations funding round, we can see the implications for the sector – and they’re grim.

Stripped bare: funding cap leaves companies under-resourced. A scene from Australian Dance Theatre’s Habitus. Photo by Chris Herzfeld (Camlight Productions).

With the Australia Council’s budget reduced by $72.8 million over four years due to 2015’s shock raid by then Arts Minister George Brandis (to establish what is now known as the Catalyst fund) it was always apparent that there would be bad news for the sector when the results of the Four Year Funding Program were announced.

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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