The Australian government will scrap the arts fund Catalyst, which was established under Tony Abbott’s government, after condemnation from arts organisations.
The fund was originally called the national program for excellence in the arts. It was established by the then arts minister, George Brandis, with $105m from the Australia Council, and gave the arts ministry direct control over public funding of arts projects.
This led some artists to accuse the government of political interference. When Labor released its arts policy before last year’s federal election, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, the party’s arts spokesman, Mark Dreyfus, and its communications spokesman, Jason Clare, described Catalyst as a “ministerial slush fund”.
According to the ABC, the fund stripped more than $100m from the Australia Council over four years – about 15% of its budget – and meant more than 60 small to medium-sized arts organisations lost their funding.
In a statement, the current arts minister, Mitch Fifield, announced the return of $80.2m to the Australia Council over the next four years and said his decision to abolish the fund was made after listening to feedback.
“While Catalyst has been successful in supporting a broad range of arts projects, especially those by small to medium arts organisations, the government has listened and responded to feedback from the department, the Australia Council and the arts sector regarding the ongoing arrangements for the Australian government’s funding for the arts portfolio,” he said.
“It also provides scope for the Australia Council to address specific recommendations from the Opera Review related to Victorian Opera and Opera Queensland, as well as address funding sustainability for Queensland Ballet and the Brandenburg Orchestra.”
Fifield said his department would retain $2m a year to provide funding for organisations that are not supported by the Australia Council.
“This may include the galleries, libraries, archives and museums sector and some regional and community, education and health organisations,” Fifield said.
“The department will also continue to administer the Visions of Australia and Festivals Australia initiatives that were transferred from the Australia Council to the department as part of the 2015-16 budget.”
