Creative Regions National Summit
Parliamentary Address – Senator Perin Davey
Old Parliament House, Canberra
Firstly, I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land that we’re meeting on.
I pay my respects to Elders past, present, and future.
Secondly, I want to acknowledge all of you, and thank each and every one of you in this room for what you do for regional arts in Australia.
Because regional arts matter in so many more ways than a lot of people give them credit for.
I was in Dubbo not that long ago, talking to a pharmacist who had made the move, moved out from the city into Dubbo, but nearly didn’t make the move because his wife was really concerned.
She didn’t know what Dubbo would be like, wasn’t sure they’d fit in, and then she found out that there was not only a fantastic theatre building in Dubbo, but a vibrant arts community in Dubbo, and there was culture in Dubbo.
All of a sudden she went from ‘What are we going to do out there?’ to ‘I’m joining the theatre group, and I’m getting involved.’
Arts and culture make our regions liveable and attractive places to go and to move.
If we want to see regional development, and if we want to see our regions grow and thrive – which I do – then we need to have arts and culture in those regions.
There’s another really important story that I hold so close to me when I think about regional arts, and you would have read in my bio, I used to be involved with Outback Theatre for Young People.
Before I was appointed Chair of that organisation, I was involved with the planning.
We were delivering a project in a really small community called Barham, outside of my hometown of Deniliquin.
This project ran over two years, where we embedded an artist in the region for a period of months in the first year and then months in the second year, as they worked with the students of Barham High School to write, choreograph, produce and stage their own unique work to tell the story of the students.
It was just at the end of the Millennium Drought.
It was just at the beginning of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan – which is my water portfolio hat coming on – but it was long before I was involved in politics.
They put on that performance, and I saw grown men walk out crying.
They were crying for a multitude of reasons, but one of the farmers said to me, “I did not realise my kids were so aware of what was going on.”
The story those kids told was of the hardship of drought, of the hardship of neighbours battling neighbours, of the politics of agriculture at the time.
But they captured it in such an engaging, enthralling, and entertaining way.
The production was phenomenal.
We very nearly got sponsors to bring that production to Canberra.
It just fell apart at the last minute.
But that’s how important it is because it’s about letting the regions tell their stories as well.
Seeing those students grow through that process and walk out the other side with newfound confidence and ability – not only in themselves, but also their ability to then talk to their parents about things they’d never spoken about around the kitchen table before – that’s how powerful arts can be.
And that’s why we need arts in the regions.
This brings me to my wad of papers here because when I first got elected, I unfortunately had to resign from Outback Theatre for Young People.
But I didn’t want to walk away from what really matters to me and matters to so many people in the regions and to all of you.
Back in 2019, at my first Senate Estimates hearing, I raced in.
I was late to the arts portfolio section because I was doing regional affairs, transport, education, and communications.
Anyway, I raced in very late.
One of my questions to Dr Arnott from the department was: of the 30 major performing arts organisations that were funded at the time, how many were based regionally?
I started to get the ‘Oh, but’, and I said, “No, no. How many are based outside of capital cities?”
The answer was, “None.”
So then I asked, “Of the millions of dollars we’re spending on arts, how much is actually spent on organisations based in the regions?”
The answer was, “I don’t know. We’ll take that on notice.”
Three Estimate sessions later, I was very happy to start hearing the word ‘regional’ come out from the department, from the Australia Council.
I had Mr Collette from the Australia Council in front of me, and they were waxing lyrical about the fly-in, fly-out programs.
I call them fly-in, fly-out programs where you’ve got, like, Bell Theatre Company coming to Wagga and doing a two-day session.
It’s very exciting, but it’s not what I want to see.
I mean, keep it up – I don’t want to not see it, but I don’t want to just see it.
So I asked again, “What funding goes to regional arts organisations who are actually based in the regions, rather than fly-in, fly-out arts?”
He was excited because he had his papers and he flicked them around, and he said, “Oh, about $20.9 million.”
He then went on to say, “We actually changed our classification of regional and remote funding very much based on the questions you have asked, Senator Davey.”
So tick, that’s a win for me, I say.
He said, “Now we are very much looking at where the application is located, and we make it very clear that to qualify for regional and remote funding – as distinct from touring funds – you have to be based in regional and remote areas.”
That’s important, but obviously I don’t rest on one success.
I want to keep succeeding, and I want to keep seeing you succeed.
In February this year, you might have seen me in the headlines.
Just saying, still standing up for you, though.
I asked again, “How much are they spending in the regions?”
It’s gone up to $23 million.
Also importantly, they now say with the small to medium companies that they are funding for the next four-year period, for the multi-year funding, the number of organisations in the regions will grow from 34 to 44.
That’s an additional 10 companies based in regional Australia that will have the security of four-year funding.
So from 2019 when they didn’t even know, to now where they’re actually prioritising and making sure they’re looking at where organisations are based.
Importantly, from the 30 MPAs in 2019 that were all based in capital cities, we now have – they’ve changed the wording – partnership framework organisations.
There are now five that are regionally based organisations.
This has not been done through changing the staff because it’s still Mr Collette at the helm and still Dr Arnott.
It hasn’t been done through changing staff.
Didn’t need to change the staff.
Just needed to change the rhetoric and change the focus and let them know that someone is watching.
That someone is me.
I will continue to watch, and I will continue to bat for all of you to make sure there is funding available for rural and regional-based organisations, so you can continue to do the fantastic work you do to give a voice to my community and to give culture to those areas.
So we can continue to see regional development and growth in the areas where we’ve got the space, we’ve got the room, we’ve got the capacity, and importantly, we’ve got the heart.
So thank you very much for inviting me today.
I don’t know if I spoke for too long or not enough, but thank you.
It’s great to see you all here in Canberra.
To Regional Arts Australia, keep up the good work because you are making a massive difference as well.
Thank you.
ENDS