The Minister for the Arts Senator George Brandis wrote to Australia Council chairman Rupert Myer last week asking him to look into a condition for public funding that would require that ‘the applicant does not unreasonably refuse private sector funding’. His actions were a direct response to the decision by the Biennale of Sydney to withdraw from its funding arrangement with Transfield Holdings, following a boycott by nine artists and a letter, which has now been signed by 51 artists, expressing ethical concerns about receiving funding from a company asssociated with Transfield Services, which manages asylum seeker detention centres.
