In late March, the Australian Greens announced they would push for a $12.5 million investment to help complete structural building works at South Melbourne Town Hall, so that the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) could move back into its former home.
“Music is so important. It brings us together for good times, comforts us in tough times and provides the soundtrack to our lives,” Sonya Semmens, the Greens candidate for Macnamara (the Federal seat that includes South Melbourne Town Hall, and which is currently held by Labor’s Josh Burns) said in March.
“This $12.5 million investment will ensure the Academy has a permanent home to train the next generation of Australia’s musicians, entertain our communities and encourage visitation to local businesses,” Semmens added.
The Greens spokesperson for Arts and Communications, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, added: “The Greens are the party of the arts and we are proud to support one of Melbourne’s cultural icons. It’s an institution that promotes excellence in Australian classical music and creates jobs in our creative industries.”
She continued, “We need to support our local Australian music sector, so we can share and celebrate our stories, culture and creativity with each other and on the world stage.
“Music enriches all of our lives and our musicians and our training institutions deserve proper investment and support.”
Now, the Albanese Government has also come to the party, last Thursday (17 April) pledging to invest – if re-elected on Saturday 3 May – $12.5 million to refurbish South Melbourne Town Hall so that ANAM can move back into the building, which was the Academy’s home from 1996 to 2020.
The Labor Member for Macnamara, Josh Burns, said last week: “Paul Keating founded ANAM, Labor strengthened it, and now we are going to help build its future right here in South Melbourne.”
Burns’ statement skipped over the fact that it was also a Labor Arts Minister, Peter Garrett, who cut ANAM’s funding in 2008, sparking a crisis and leading to a furious response across the arts sector; ANAM’s funding was eventually restored.
“One in 10 people in Macnamara work in the arts and creative sector, and investing in their future and training is something that’s core to Labor values,” Burns added.
Federal Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, said, “Artists are real workers with real careers. They make a substantial cultural and economic contribution to our country… This funding will ensure the long-term viability of ANAM, so they can continue to train the finest young musicians who contribute to the soundtrack of Australia.”
The $12.5 million figure was identified as an appropriate contribution – from both the Victorian and Federal Labor Governments – towards the redevelopment of South Melbourne Town Hall, in a media statement by ANAM General Manager Nick Bailey on 12 March.
“This [restoration of South Melbourne Town Hall] is a charismatic $100 million project to which the City of Port Phillip has contributed $34 million and to which the 2019 Coalition Government gave $12.5 million. When our fundraising campaign has concluded, ANAM will have contributed $30 million, and we are now calling on the Albanese and Allan Governments to each contribute $12.5 million over three years to make this visionary project a reality,” Bailey said at the time.
Responding to the promise of support from Labor and the earlier pledge from the Greens, on 17 April Bailey said: “The Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) is deeply grateful for the support of Josh Burns and [Arts] Minister Tony Burke. For their continued belief in what ANAM does and why it matters, and for today’s funding announcement that will help secure the South Melbourne Town Hall renewal project and bring us home.
“The Australian Greens have also announced that they will support a $12.5 million Commonwealth contribution to this charismatic project. The position of the Liberal Party is still not clear,” Bailey added.
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ANAM moved out of the Town Hall (a heritage-listed, Victorian-era municipal building constructed between 1879 and 1880, and last renovated in 2004) in 2020, after the building became structurally unsound following a roof collapse in 2018, which caused extensive flooding.
ANAM is currently in residence at the Abbotsford Convent, but is keen to return home; a consortium of South Melbourne traders is also enthusiastically awaiting ANAM’s return.
An open letter, signed by over 170 businesses and traders in South Melbourne – including the Clarendon and Coventry Streets Business Association and a large cohort of traders from the popular South Melbourne Market – which called upon the Commonwealth and State Governments to jointly provide 25% of the funds to save and renew the South Melbourne Town Hall and bring ANAM home to South Melbourne, was released in March.
“The lifeless Town Hall, once the heart of our community, has stood closed and padlocked for over five years, a glaring reminder of lost opportunity and neglect. Its absence has drained energy from our precinct, impacting businesses and weakening the local economy,” said Anne Michaels, President of the Clarendon and Coventry Streets Business Association.
“We strongly support ANAM’s endeavours to refurbish and reopen the Town Hall, bringing renewed vibrancy to our community. Our precinct needs the Town Hall to reopen to breathe life back into our community, restore vitality to local businesses and reclaim its role as a thriving cultural hub. We urge all levels of government to commit the necessary funding to make this happen.”
A similar letter, signed by more than 700 artists – including Paul Kelly, The Australian Ballet’s Artistic Director David Hallberg, Tim Minchin and the chief conductors of Australia’s six professional orchestras, was released around the same time. The release of both open letters was previously reported by ArtsHub.
To date, the only major voice silent on the issue of ANAM and South Melbourne Town Hall is the Coalition: Shadow Arts Minister Claire Chandler has said nothing about ANAM at the time of writing, though the previous Coalition Government contributed $12.5 million to ANAM’s South Melbourne Town Hall campaign in 2019.
Senator Chandler’s parliamentary office has been approached for comment regarding ANAM; we were advised mid-afternoon that a response would not be forthcoming by our publishing deadline.
ANAM is part of the ARTS8 group, the Australian Roundtable for Arts Training Excellence, a cohort that includes the Australian Film, Television and Radio School (AFTRS), the Flying Fruit Fly Circus and the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA).
In May 2024, the ARTS8 Group received a $115.2 million support package over four years thanks to the 2024-25 Federal Budget. As previously documented by ArtsHub, the 2025-26 Budget offered little in the way of arts sector-specific support, leaving many peak bodies disappointed.
