The Final Report of the Senate Arts Inquiry has now been issued.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Bus ... ing/Report
.. but especially this part.. which is great stuff.
http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Bus ... Report/d01
That change is about to happen, there can be no doubt.
Importantly, change may very well include a better deal for Traditional poetry now, something that has been totally ignored in the past. It should be welcomed by ABPA members.
It has been very satisfying being able to participate and actively contribute to the exercise even although the Inquiry, as pointed out in the Government's dissenting report above, was a farce and merely an attempt at vote-getting by the Opposition parties by fanning up the anger of dumb, manipulatable Arties.
My submission/correspondence has been for Traditional/Bush Poetry on behalf of myself. The ABPA has never been mentioned. It has been nothing to do with the ABPA as an organisation because I would never presume to speak for others.
Where some cordiality at least existed before, I expect that those groups and individuals that slammed "Brandis" in writing may find the previous easy path to money somehow is not so smooth now. Views tabled in submissions written in anger, the easy way of the keyboard warrior and from the protection of a mob have a way of coming back and biting you.
If it was not for the fact that so much fascinating and revealing material has been trotted out that previously was publicly unknown, the Inquiry exercise would have been yet another total waste of taxpayer money. Now the Arties have obligingly provided an easy roadmap to revamp the whole thing, make savings and ensure that taxpayers (as compared to narrow interest groups and individuals) gain a benefit. Such a test can now be applied whereas before it was not.
That it was all stage-managed to be one-sided was a shame because the whole thing degenerated into a complaints session rather than a reasoned and lively democratic debate on the merits or otherwise of the proposed NPEA plan.
Senator Macdonald in his Senate presentation stated that people who held a contrary view (like myself) and supported NPEA were simply not invited to present to the Senate Inquiry. As early as end-July I wrote to the Committee stating that my submission stood out as a lone voice that supported the government's NPEA, and in the event that they had an interest in presenting to the public the other side of the argument well.... And I foolishly thought I was uninvited to the inquiry party because I was a bit of a rough bloke who usually got thrown out of parties. Not so. Apparently dissenting submissions were suppressed. It seems that corruption can take many forms other than backhanders...
It certainly can never be said to reflect positively in any way on the Arties.
The Government's well written Dissention document tears right into them, takes them apart and thoroughly discredits the whole thing and all those involved. Excellent. Well done. A victory of sorts. In a way I suppose that I am glad that I did not attend as a witness (for bush poetry) as some of the bad odour may have rubbed off on me.. heaven forbid. It was a bad scene.
Opposition Senators have nothing to be proud of.
The Australia Council for the Arts is being dismembered bit by bit.. control over the public's own money in Arts is being transferred progressively in a manageable way back to them. That is a good thing.
Tactically the first step is to get in-principle change in and whether you take $1m or $20m from the Australia Council in year one is irrelevant. Softly, softly, catchee monkey. Tactics.
Arties are pretty stupid and cannot see beyond themselves and thus cannot appreciate that stuff... easily out-manoeuvred and out-witted.
So for ABPA members.... what's in it?
OK... for just one example, at a personal level only, if you write well enough and want to enshrine your (good) tight work in a book or CD for the benefit of future generations, then I am anticipating that the cost of this will be modestly subsidised. Perhaps in a distant future when there is no bush left and Australian kids want to know about it and its lifestyle and values, then it is folk like ABPA members who write that can present some of it in powerful rhyme for them. The payback is a public subsidy right now. Fair enough too.
A lot more to come I think... so an OUTWARD looking approach is required. How can we as individuals and Bush Poets promote Bush Poetry, or our favourite poets like Lawson/Paterson/Dennis for the sake of ALL Australians and not just promote our own personal work?? Magazines like TAT make their contribution... as an example. Great! Promotion. It is the way to go. Money should be no object if the public literary benefit can be established. No more saying "great idea but no money to do it...". Nope.
Good times ahead I am thinking ... but it will need input from talented and motivated writers like so many people here at ABPA!! People with Vision, Imagination and Fire in the Belly for their craft ..... where are you??