Next month’s budget will provide an additional $535.3 million over four years for nine major cultural and historical institutions.
Funding will go to the Australian National Maritime Museum, Bundanon Trust, Museum of Australian Democracy (Old Parliament House), National Archives of Australia, National Film and Sound Archive, National Gallery of Australia, National Library of Australia, National Museum of Australia and the National Portrait Gallery of Australia.
The money includes the previously announced $33 million for the National Library’s Trove digital archive.
The government also promises that the institutions will receive indexed funding after the four years.
Our institutions will be able to meet their financial obligations and invest for the future, knowing that they finally have a government that values them, as do the Australian people.
The government says it will “get a clear view of future capital works and improvements to ensure that the institutions never again fall into the state of disrepair they have been in for the past decade”.
But it hasn’t abolished the “efficiency dividend” requirement, which has been a curse of the institutions for years.
This week, Chancellor of the Exchequer Katy Gallagher defended the yield dividend, telling The Canberra Times it was appropriate as long as funding was adequate.
“I think it’s a responsible part of government to put a productivity efficiency component into any funding and make sure we keep the budget on a sustainable basis,” she said.
Dating back to the 1980s, the efficiency dividend has again been criticized by the Community and Public Sector Union, which represents the institutions’ staff.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the extra funding was another example of his government needing to clean up the mess left by the coalition.
Arts Minister Tony Burke said the former government had left the institutions in “a shocking state of disrepair” and funding would “bring them back to where they should be – where the government provides strong core funding and philanthropists take them to a higher level.” lift level”.
The financial tightness has led some institutions to downsize their staff and services and to neglect some operations and maintenance.
The government recently appointed former ABC journalist Barrie Cassidy as chairman of the board of the Old Parliament House.
This is the second time for Cassidy, a one-time collaborator of Bob Hawke. He was appointed chairman of the Old Parliament House advisory council at the end of the last Labor government, but resigned after the coalition won the 2013 election. Cassidy (who was still at the ABC at the time) was pressured by the then Secretary of the Arts, George Brandis.
