The Howard Government’s cultural war and its sabotage of the National Museum, has today taken a new twist. A Freedom of Information request by the Sydney Morning Herald has revealed that deep divisions exist within the Museum’s council and that supporters of the current Director, Dawn Casey, are being ignored by the Howard Government. It [...]
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You may be Minister for the Arts, Senator Kemp, but you can’t embroider the truth
Obviously missing the point, Senator Kemp is embroidering the truth when it comes to talking up funding levels of the National Museum of Australia. For the Minister’s benefit, here are the facts: The Prime Minister himself commissioned a report which warned that if the National Museum was funded insufficiently it would lead to “rapidly declining” [...]
Howard’s spiteful sabotage of the National Museum of Australia
A secret report obtained under FOI has exposed that the National Museum of Australia is the latest target in the Howard Government’s spiteful and dishonest undercover cultural war. The secret report exposes the Howard Government’s plan to let the Museum slowly bleed to death by knowingly providing funding at unsustainably low levels. This is an [...]
Grave Concerns For Arts Production
In what will be a huge blow to ABC productions, the Howard Government is cutting $500,000 from documentary production and a further $1.5 million to go from productions already underway. ABC cuts imposed by the Coalition means job losses in television and documentary production serve as a disincentive to young artists and to the already [...]
Museum Review a time warp back to the 1950’s
The review of the National Museum of Australia advocates a whitewashing of Australian History. This is in accordance with John Howard’s view that Australia should focus on the great achievements of white men in Australia, rather than the complex and diverse stories that make up Australian culture. This disappointing review recommends that we should be [...]
Film censorship concern
The closing down last night of the screening in Sydney of the movie Ken Park is disturbing. This follows the decision of the Office of Film and Literature Classification to refuse classification to the film. I believe that in a free society adults should be able to view whatever they want, provided that those involved [...]
The Arts Portfolio enters a new era
I am extremely pleased to be taking responsibility for the Arts Portfolio in addition to my existing Shadow Ministerial Portfolios of Information Technology and Sport. Arts form the basis for Australian culture and self-identity. It is important that Governments pay them the attention they deserve, or we risk losing our cultural heritage. I have extremely [...]
