Green Arts Vision in the State

A big priority for the Greens this election is supporting small and medium-sized local music venues to help them stay open.

We’re seeing beloved places like the zoo close due to rising insurance and commercial rent costs, as well as young people having less money to spend due to the ever-growing cost of living crisis. This has made it increasingly difficult for local artists to find venues to perform.

The Greens want the state government to step in and buy buildings across Queensland and rent them out to not-for-profit organizations and councils for the creative industries and artists. By having public spaces for the arts, we can preserve local life and create more jobs in the sector.

When you consider, for example, that the current Labor state government has pumped $1.1 billion of public money into the greyhound and racing industry since 2015, and has readily given Star Casino financial concessions and a secret 99-year lease on waterfront land, it’s clear that that the lack of support for Queensland arts and culture is not a result of a lack of resources. Instead, it is the Labor Party’s political choice to deprioritise the arts and fund cultural and social life according to the interests of its big donors rather than ordinary people. There is nothing in the LNP’s history to suggest they will do better.

This is now the priority of the main parties. Investment in culture has been reduced to gambling, horse racing and major international spectacles, leaving local artists behind.

The current economic and cultural landscape poses increasingly challenging challenges for everyone essential to ensuring the continued success of the arts: artists, organizers, organizers and promoters, production and support staff, venue owners and art lovers. If we want our art to continue to contribute to the richness of our lives and the public good, we must support it to do so.

The Greens will guarantee existing levels of funding for grant programs, arts organizations, major events and cultural institutions as a minimum. The Greens will never support cuts to arts funding, investment funds or government-supported events. We also want to see sustainable arts stewardship, so we want to expand access to support programs for organizations wanting to better support their volunteers, and introduce paid mentoring programs for Indigenous people and young people wanting to become arts leaders.

We also support minimal investment in public art as part of large-scale public infrastructure and neighborhood-level development, ensuring that major urban transformations are accompanied by both local activation and permanent art installations.

The Greens are also committed to sustainable investment in Queensland’s cultural attractions, including new ones such as the dedicated and self-determined Indigenous Cultural District in Brisbane, as well as sustainable funding for our key cultural infrastructure. Whether in Brisbane or our regions, theatres, museums, galleries and performance venues are a fundamental part of the fabric of our communities.

We are fully committed to funding priority initiatives from QMusic, Screen Queensland and other leading arts organizations, including a minimum of $35 million in financial support over four years to support:

• development of the Queensland music plan
• Support Be There Live events and venues to support festivals, venues and events.
• public procurement policies to prioritize and set targets to attract domestic talent
• QMusic Youth in Music Initiative
• Mental health industry QMusic in partnership with national body, Support Act.
• Indigenous Music Plan
• Queensland Indigenous Industry Initiatives
• Queensland Regional Music Office in Townsville
• Queensland Regional Music Foundation and Regional Music Infrastructure Initiative, and
• The Waltons Store building in Fortitude Valley is becoming the new home for Queensland’s music, gaming and film industries.

But perhaps most importantly, we will tackle the cost of living crisis by freezing and capping rents, capping the prices of essential products and making healthcare truly free in Queensland. If Queenslanders, especially young Queenslanders, don’t have enough money to even pay rent every week, they won’t have enough money to support the arts or pursue their own creative pursuits.

At the last federal election the Greens announced a policy of paying artists a living wage. This pilot program will provide 10,000 Australian artists with a full-time income so they can focus on creating art. We will also establish a sick pay guarantee scheme, modeled on the Victorian Government’s successful pilot, which will allow freelancers, working artists and casual workers to access payments to compensate them for losing their jobs due to illness.

Our amazing candidates and volunteers spoke one-on-one with more than 30,000 voters across the state. We’ve heard from countless working artists, and the main things we continue to hear that would help them aren’t arts policies: they’re affordable homes, a functioning social safety net, and a labor relations system that protects their rights at work. ensures payment of their bills. promptly and ensures compliance with required minimum amounts due.

Increasing access to arts programs, grants and venues is essential to maintaining Queensland’s cultural ecosystem. other works too.

The Greens’ plan to cap rents, offer low-rate mortgages through a public bank, fully fund state schools and TAFE, and ensure everyone has access to high-billing doctors and 20 free mental health appointments every year will make a huge difference. to thousands of working artists in Queensland.

We will take real action to ease the economic pain of everyday people so you can focus on what’s important – making art.

It is vital that we address the cost of living crisis and the housing crisis because ensuring the basic needs of every Queenslander are met is an important part of ensuring our arts scene thrives here in Queensland.

This is the first in a series of views from Queensland politicians ahead of the Queensland state election on Saturday 26 October 2024. Look for more articles from the Labor Party and the Queensland Liberal National Party in the coming days.