Silence of the art lambs by Gunduz Kalic

What are those born-again political animals, the Coalition, up to with their new arts policy?  Entitled For Arts Sake - A Fair Go, the policy reeks of the overall Coalition strategy in the election campaign - soothe, soothe, and soothe again.  

The conventional wisdom is that the arts community has done very well, thank you, under Labour.  How then will the arts fare should a conservative government be elected on March 2?

A phone call to shadow Arts Minister Senator Richard Alston’s office with this enquiry met with the response,  "We will at least match Labor spending in every area - in some areas we’ll give more".

Arguably, of course, arts policy was where the Hewson Liberals met their Waterloo in the last Federal election campaign.  In 1993, with his arts launch, Paul Keating seized the high cultural ground, and never looked back.

In the end, nothing much ever came out of his Creative Nation razzamatazz except the infamous Keating Crony awards.  Doubtless, the cultural lustre has diminished.

But the Coalition is taking no risks.

Read my lips, John Howard is saying, in arts policy as in every other area of policy  we will do nothing radical, nothing very different and especially nothing to hurt or upset anybody.  Funding to the arts to stay more or less as is.  The Australia Council to stay.  Peer assessment to stay.  A one-stop arts shop and a charter of arts responsibilities between levels of government to be introduced.

So much for policy rhetoric.  What will the Libs actually do to the arts if they gain power?

If the Coalition does attain power and has to contend with ruined national finances, will it honour its promises to the arts?  If the experience of slashed public expenditure on the arts in the face of budget shortfalls overseas, particularly the UK and the US, is anything to go by - not likely.  When national Budgets tighten, arts budgets get big cuts.

Nudge, nudge, wink, wink.  Neutralise the interest groups.  Soothe the voter.  Many in the community, eager for a long overdue change of government may well consider the current Coalition soft and round politics to be an acceptable species of judicious silence.

Keep the mouth shut wherever possible and for as long as possible.  Make pleasant and agreeable noises wherever necessary.

In the arts, just promise to match Labor.  Don’t risk any votes by rocking any boats.  Easy does it.  Just let the Government be voted out of office.

But this approach to politics betrays both a profound distrust of and a cynical distance from the voting public.  A line that still circulates in the Liberal Party goes,  "the Australian people were given an IQ test at the last election - and they failed".

As to whether spin-doctored secrecy can bring the Coalition to power, only the election will tell.  But For Arts Sake is certainly not about a dinkum fair go to the arts - or any other sector of the community.

This article appeared in the Australian Financial Review, February 14, 1999.