Federal Arts Minister Simon Crean has announced a wide-ranging independent review of the Australia Council for the Arts, the federal government’s peak arts funding and advisory body. But it’s been hopelessly compromised at the start.
“The new National Cultural Policy will set the framework for Australian government support for the arts, culture and the creative industries for the next decade,” Crean said in the announcement, pointing to the “huge response from artists, audiences and community groups” to the government’s discussion paper on the National Cultural Policy.
Crean appears to be positioning the review to examine the Australia Council’s increasingly sclerotic and inflexible funding procedures, which have proved unable to respond to the changing nature of culture, particularly digital cultural practices. The Australia Council abolished its New Media Arts Board, which had previously supported digital practice, in 2004.
“As part of this work, we must have responsive, timely and expert agencies to deliver support to artists and arts organisations as they respond to new audiences and opportunities including those opening up with emerging art forms and technologies,” he said.
The review will be conducted by Angus James and Gabrielle Trainor. And that’s the first problem.
The terms of reference for the review, released to Crikey late yesterday by Crean’s office, show it will specifically focus on the “governance” and “administrative model” of the Australia Council, including its structure, funding arrangements, internal budgeting, peer-review processes and the Whitlam-era Australia Council Act (1975) that governs the agency. But the findings will not be made public, and the man chosen to lead it appears to have an obvious conflict of interest.
James, formerly the Australasian boss of ABN AMRO and currently advising clients in the mergers-and-acquisitions sector at his corporate advisory partnership Aquasia, is also the deputy chairman of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. The Australian Chamber Orchestra is a key client organisation of the Australia Council; last year it received $1.7 million in funding.
In other words, James will be reviewing the organisation that funds the organisation of which he is the deputy chair.
The conflict of interest is made more acute by secrecy of the findings. Unlike the media inquiry currently being conducted by Ray Finkelstein, this review will not take public submissions or hold public hearings. Nor will it publicly report. Crikey has been told by a Crean adviser it will instead feed into the National Cultural Policy deliberations and that the eventual outcome of the review will be reflected in the final shape of that policy.
The National Cultural Policy is now more than three years in the making, having held two separate rounds of submissions under two different arts ministers. But there is still no deadline for the policy’s release. Nor is it clear how this review will relate to the promised Mitchell Review into arts philanthropy, announced earlier this year. That review was promised to be completed by the end of 2011, which now seems unlikely.
In its 2009 handbook on conflicts of interest, In Whose Interests?: Preventing and managing conflicts of interest in the APS, the Australian Public Service Commission defines conflicts of interest as:
“… a conflict between the public duties and private interests of a public official, in which the public official has private-capacity interests which could improperly influence the performance of their official duties and responsibilities.”
It also states that “a situation that looks like a conflict of interest may be enough to undermine public confidence, even if in fact there is no conflict or it has already been resolved”.
A prominent corporate governance adviser to many public sector clients, with a specialty in the arts industry, told Crikey yesterday that James has a clear conflict of interest in the current review. She argued he should step down from the Australia Chamber Orchestra board while the review is being conducted.
Contemporary music advocate John Wardle agreed: “The review does need to be done independently. We’ve already had the wrong people at the helm of the organisation, and the minister is looking compromised by appointing a review team who could be perceived as having a conflict of interest.”
James was contacted for comment last night but had not responded by deadline.
A thorough review of the Australia Council’s governance, administration and funding operations will touch on many aspects that will be material to the governance of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. The funding structure under which the ACO is supported — the Major Performing Arts Board — is not peer-reviewed, and funding is ongoing and recurrent. Organisations cannot apply to be in the Major Performing Arts Board, but instead must be invited. There is no open, public process under which organisations funded are assessed.
The ACO has not been silent in the debates surrounding the National Cultural Policy. The ACO’s artistic director, Richard Tognetti, has been an outspoken opponent of attempts to reform the Australia Council. In August 2010 he told ABC News that if attempts are made to support new media arts or other forms of creativity “one of the orchestras or leading companies might be destroyed”. In a memorable overstatement, Tognetti argued any cuts to funding for orchestras would be “a bit like saying we’ll burn all the books because we’ve all got iPads now”.
James may stand down from the Australia Chamber Orchestra board while the review is being conducted, but doesn’t the conflict of interest still remain?
Wouldn’t he still carry the taint of favouritism even if he temporarily wasn’t on the ACO?
Under the guiding hand of war criminal & former PM, john howard, the Australia Council reconfirmed its principal role as public subsidy to anachronistic anglo-european High Arts. This review will arrive at predictable conclusions (you neglect to mention that Gabrielle Traynor’s most pertinent experience in this area of public administration is as a former director to the Sydney Symphony Orchestra).
Have you made a close reading of early issues of Art Network magazine (c. early 1980s)? This debate isn’t exactly new, although it did seem to have found its somewhat agreeable, least worst, resolution at a certain time.
& thanks heaps! for the article.
One can’t help feeling that the Australia Council is being used by the Australian upper classes to prop up the musical equivalents of the whaling (sic) and logging industries – opera and orchestras – for their own entertainment. Certainly there is very little benefit to taxpayers from these organizations which we fund, and which are hugely expensive. Do we need orchestras and bad musical soap operas anymore? Smaller ensembles and individuals do far more for Australian music, actually employ Australians and export our original cultural capital for income. There is not one Australian conductor laureate of our major symphony orchestras.
What a silly headline and misleading diatribe. Has the author actually read the terms of reference in detail or just skimmed over it and gone off half cocked about conflict of interest? In the real world professional people are quite capable of being objective and are not always slaves to their self interest. Love the reliance on unnamed sources and some one called John Wardle to bag Ozco. Who? Where are your detailed solutions to the perceived problems Mr Eltham? Where is the analysis? Can get the content of this article from any second rate artist who missed out on a grant.
Michael Harvey;
Your comparison of opera and orchestra to logging and whaling is bit far fetched! Whilst the price of these productions has become elitist the music and productions are not. I know many a horse breaker and bushman that enjoy the sounds of a 5th Symphony or Camelot. The music isn’t elitistin in fact it is quite egalitarian in its selection of listeners.
Jimpinton;
I do agree with your observations. It did seem a symplistic effort to present a contreversey rather than the facts. When will those who wish to be journalist learn that the essence of good journalism is the balanced presentation of facts and information?
My experience of the Aus Council was that they very professional with areas that needed improvement.
In relation to the circus development, that I have enjoyed observing over the last thirty years or more, I have witnessed a coherent, well structured policy that we all can witness and enjoy today. Over the course of the last thirty years the Aus Council has facilitated the development of many performers from cradle to maturity. These performers are spread throughout the world whilst still attending to their home audience through the likes of Circus Oz. This body of, still developing, performers are being noted throughout the world by their international peers. Australia will reap much bounty from their efforts. And the Australia Council has been their from the very start.
Whilst there is identifiable areas needing improvement there is much to be grateful for in our Australia Council.