Creative Nation—Arts industry and national culture
As a Government our great ambition has been to bring cultural issues into the mainstream of our national life and national decision making. On the one hand, this is because no economic or social decision is without a cultural consequence. The quality of our lives, the opportunities for self expression, the integrity of our heritage, cannot be left to chance. On the other hand, the more we succeed in encouraging a creative spirit and the flow of creative ideas, the more we will succeed as an economy and society. Paul Keating.1
In launching the Commonwealth's cultural policy, Creative Nation, in October, the Prime Minister made it quite clear that culture is the business of government. But, as the statement above indicates, the Government's role is not solely to provide some sort of buffer, protecting culture from the vagaries of social and economic policy decisions. For culture generates its own "consequences", and so the Commonwealth also needs to take a pro-active policy stance in relation to the role played by cultural activities in social and economic development. This position seems to mark something of a shift from that outlined in the 1992 Discussion Paper, The Role of the Commonwealth in Australia's Cultural Development, which established the tone for its inquiry by stating the "fundamental point" that, while a policy for cultural development "now seems timely", "the paths followed by authentic cultural development can never be predetermined".2
Within the arts, the idea that cultural activity should be kept outside the direct control of government remains strong, but then so does the view that the arts should not be simply abandoned to the uncertainties of the free market. Of... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline