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‘Two out of three is bad.’ That’s the response from the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA to this week’s National Arts Debate, where Labor and Greens presented their arts policies but Minister for the Arts Mitch Fifield offered nothing to the sector.
Read: Coalition fails to deliver ​arts policy
Disappointment was widespread in the sector, particularly as the Minister had hinted earlier in the week that he might announce policy at the Debate.
‘The National Arts Debate revealed depressingly few new insights from the Coalition and could be seen as indicative of how little importance it places on arts and culture despite the rhetoric around innovation and creativity. Minister Fifield did make some comments about adjusting Catalyst should the Coalition be returned to government,’ said Chamber Executive Director, Henry Boston.
While online discussion praised the Labor and Greens commitment to return funds to the Australia Council and, particularly, the Greens promise to use Centrelink to provide a living wage for artists, conversation overwhelmingly focused on the failure of the Coalition to provide an arts policy.
Read: Greens expand arts policy
Indeed the most positive comment in relation to Senator Fifield that we could find on Twitter was ‘He turned up’.
