Wednesday, 4 February 2026

 David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:51): (2276) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Creative Industries, and it concerns the savage cuts that he and Creative Victoria and others in the Allan Labor government have instituted across arts organisations. I am asking him to look at these and to reverse these savage and nasty cuts. It happened, to bring the chamber into the picture, in the week before Christmas. As they say, ’twas the week before Christmas, and all through the land, well, in this case there were a nasty set of phone calls that came from Claire Febey and some of the staff at Creative Victoria, and they hoed into these organisations – no written documents, by the way. Nothing was provided in writing, just ‘Your funding is cut.’ And guess what it is cut to. It is cut to zero. Longstanding funding for groups like the Abbotsford Convent – $200,000 a year is what they have received since the early 2000s, and they act as a hub for a whole series of creative groups, writers, painters, musicians and others. They have facilities, but they coordinate a number of these groups and individuals that access these spots. Their funding has been cut from $800,000 over four years to zero.

In the case of Writers Victoria, an organisation that has been funded since 1989, their funding is $150,000 a year – $600,000 over the forward estimates. That has been cut to zero. Now Victoria will be the only mainland state where the writers organisation in that state receives no assistance whatsoever. There was no explanation for these cuts, there were no reasons given for the cuts, just ‘Your funding is cut from 1 July to zero.’ Similarly, a group like Musica Viva, a very respected organisation that has been active since the 1940s and 50s providing outreach and singing and other musical training into schools, has also had their funding cut to zero by the state government. They have other sources of funding, and there has been a philanthropic group that have stepped forward to assist in this particular case.

I think state government funding sometimes needs to be a little bit sharper, and in the case of Writers Victoria, we are said to be an international UNESCO City of Literature. I find that a bit odd when the state government has now cut its funding for Writers Vic to zero. These are savage cuts, nasty cuts, and the minister should reverse them.