Tony Bourke [sic] has finally announced some COVID support for the arts sector — many months too late.
That’s former arts minister Paul Fletcher earlier this week, lamenting the “many months” of inaction on the arts sector from Labor (as well as misspelling Tony Burke’s name). Which is kind of a great slam on a government that could reasonably argue it hasn’t really been in power for many months.
Because if you go back any further than four months, you get into Fletcher’s stewardship of the sector, such as it was. Fletcher’s statement criticises the government for failing to release $20 million from the Coalition’s Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) fund, which was put in place in 2020 and designed to help the struggling sector get through the audience pandemic. In case you need reminding, that’s the same fund that critics argued left big chunks of the sector behind while giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to LEGO.
It also adhered to the Morrison government’s love of rort-ready funds, by cutting out Australia Council — which operates at arm’s length from the government and has a peer-review process — and giving Fletcher total ministerial oversight over the use of the money (the same mechanics that powered the sports rorts saga and others). It also produced eyebrow-raising grants such as the $620,000 granted to a Western Australian couple with no experience to run weekly music events in the small town of Manjimup.
What are your thoughts on the Coalition’s handling of the arts sector? Let us know by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
Fletcher, Ley, Taylor and the rest of ’em, which audience are these f-wits playing too? …. Their goldfish at home?
I await the public hearings into the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s purchase of flood plain water from a company set up by Angus Taylor and co.
Paul Fletcher – minister whose department paid $30,000,000 for a parcel of land worth $3,000,000.
Paul Fletcher served as Optus’ Director of Corporate & Regulatory Affairs from 2000-2008. Then, as Morrison Govt Communications Minister, he minimised Optus’ security testing requirements in 2020.
Wasn’t aware of that. Seems his work history is a long, long tale of remarkable incompetence.
Failing upwards is the tory way – promoted away from where they can do the most harm.
Why expect Fletcher to be any more competent than his colleagues?
The federal ICAC will probably be looking into that too!
Paul Fletcher – one of the intellectual giants of the Morrison government
To paraphrase Zippy the Pinhead, “Are we rorting enough yet?”
“ We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”
— Anaïs Nin
The chutzpah is just astonishing – but Ley, Taylor et al all give him a run for the most insouciant of all.