Glen Milne's article in the Australian this morning reports on a speech George Brandis gave, in which he made the point that funding for the arts has grown significantly under the Howard government, not that you would ever know that by listening to artists. (If there is something funny about those figures, we'll hear it from LP soon enough.)
I liked this from the article:
In a speech to the Sydney Film School in July, Keating declared: "It is no secret that the arts are having a very bad time of it in Australia these days; a bad time of it not simply in terms of funding, which is the thing most often discussed, but rather in terms of the milieu for its growth and prosperity."...Newspoll is stick stuck where it's been forever. But if Howard doesn't call the election this week, now that the sport is out of the way, he will suffer from the impression that he is clinging to power. On the other hand, he does need a long campaign to have any hope. What's the longest election campaign in Australian history, I wonder? Is 8 weeks out of the question?
At a recent speech to the National Press Club, Brandis took Keating on, acidly dismissing his Sydney Film School remarks thus: "I suppose if you spend 11 1/2 years in a sulk things would tend to get away from you a bit."
Andrew Bolt on Insiders yesterday made the point that Howard does not seem to be getting much value out of the spending announcements of late (such as increased drought relief). I agree.
Meanwhile, I see Four Corners is having a show about Dr Haneef tonight, with an extended interview with him. Somehow, I have my doubts he will win more public sympathy.
It's odd that the polls continue to be so strong for Rudd and Labor. I'm sure I don't understand politics.
ReplyDeleteIs it that people are being bombarded by how well Australia is doing from the mining boom but can't see any benefit to themselves and think that a federal labor government would be more likely to redistribute some wealth their way. If that is the case, then the better the Howard government does economically the worse it is for them electorally because people will feel relaxed enough to elect Rudd.
I have certainly noticed that Work Choices remains unpopular and the ads won't help. I've had a few people tell me they thought they would try to complain about employers reneging on workplace agreements only to find they had never been registered in the first place.
I'm not sure how much difference a Rudd government would make anyway due to his conservatism. I expect Labor to gain off Liberals and Green to gain off Labor when the election gets held.
Geoff
Did you see this article
ReplyDeleteby Des Houghton regarding the funding by the Arts Council.
According to the article:
"The Australia Council gave away $20 million in grants in the last three years for hundreds of projects that were completed late, or not at all.
At least $4 million has been frittered away in the past three years on handouts for books that were never written, works of art that were never finished and plays and recitals that were never performed.
Scandalously, millions have been lost on unspecified fellowships, promotions and unexplained "emerging artist initiatives"."
Yet not only did the Head of the Australia Council refuse to explain how the money was spent but the Arts Minister Brandis also refused to explain how the money had been spent.
Aparently Brandis doesn't want any scrutiny on how the money was spent on his watch. After all he was probably too busy checking school libraries for books criticizing Menzies