Wednesday, 4 February 2026

 Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (19:14): (1505) The matter I am raising in Parliament tonight is for the Minister for Creative Industries, because we do not have a minister for the arts in Victoria anymore, but the action I am seeking is to reverse the recent funding cuts to some of Melbourne’s key arts and cultural institutions. We all know Melbourne is the cultural capital of Australia, and it is why we love living here: art and theatre and literature. It makes our lives full, and the creative industries actually employ around one in 10 working Victorians, so it is actually a huge employer as well. But a lot of that is at risk right now because Labor has cut funding to some of our critical arts institutions.

Right before Christmas Writers Victoria learned that its four-year funding – $600,000 – would fall to zero. That is a cut of 100 per cent, and it means Victoria will end up as the only mainland state without a peak writers body. Abbotsford Convent also had its funding cut entirely. Musica Viva Australia, a national chamber music program for young performers, also had its state government funding reduced to zero. And the beloved La Mama Theatre in my local community in Carlton had their funding cut by half. They received funding for just two years rather than the four years that they have traditionally relied on.

We respect that many of these funding decisions are grant decisions that are often at arm’s length from the minister, but the reason so many organisations are losing their funding is because that total pool of funding for the arts simply is not sufficient and it is not being prioritised by the Victorian Labor government. Just as an example, the Victorian Labor government could find $350 million for luxury corporate box upgrades at the grand prix. It could find an extra $1 billion for private prisons. But they could not find a tiny fraction of that to save these arts institutions.

Melbourne is meant to be a UNESCO City of Literature, yet we are being left as the only mainland state without a peak writers body. Melbourne is meant to be the cultural and theatre capital of the country, yet we cannot find funding for one of our most important local theatres. I just did not expect these kinds of brutal cuts to come from a Labor government, but here we are.

We cannot let arts and culture die in Melbourne on Labor’s watch. The Greens stand against these cuts because we know how important these arts, cultural and literary institutions are and we know how important artists and writers and musicians are to all our lives. To those who are also outraged about these cuts: I encourage you to speak up, to get in touch with me, to join our campaign to save arts and culture in Melbourne, because arts and culture sustain us.