![\"\u201cHow](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/e494277ef5c4df1632cd1b1ca219b20ef909c3dc.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cHow are we meant to pay the artists if Creative Australia doesn\u2019t fund us?\u201d says David Handley. Credit: Louise Kennerley<\/p>\n
Burke\u2019s comments came before the opening of a historic arts tax summit convened at Sydney Opera House attended by arts ministers for NSW, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia. Ministers came empty-handed, but Burke said tax breaks would be considered when its national cultural policy, Revive, came up for review next year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are many parts of the arts sector that are very much struggling … [but] you don\u2019t get bigger reform without doing the rigorous work first,\u201d Burke said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re right at the beginning of a whole lot of ideas and I want the work to be done. If you do make changes to the tax system they\u2019re got to be big enough to make a difference, and they\u2019re long-lasting and would give real security to the sector.\u201d<\/p>\n
The most popular idea to emerge from 307 submissions was making government art prizes tax-free, NSW Arts Minister John Graham said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat way the winner of the Archibald Prize would pay as much tax as the winner of a bet on the Archibald Prize, who pays zero tax,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Loading<\/p>\n
Support was near universal for extending tax incentives \u2013 allowing for rebates on upfront production costs \u2013 from screen and digital gaming to theatre and performance.<\/p>\n
Elaine Chia, chief executive of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, said tax reforms should address the demand side of the arts business. \u201cWho wants to play to half the house?,\u201d she said, pointing to the example of Canada where GPs can prescribe free museum tickets for mental health and 18-year-olds are eligible for a voucher redeemable for the arts. \u201cWhat do you get for your 50th birthday from the government?,\u201d she asked. \u201cA free bowel screening test.\u201d<\/p>\n
Archibald Prize winner Ben Quilty listed six arts schools which either been shut or restructured in the past 12 years, and said music schools had been equally decimated. It was a matter of government priorities, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we get one tenth of the subsidises Woodside is given we\u2019d be f —-d right,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you say we are on a precipice, I\u2019d say we are on a terrifying precipice.\u201d<\/p>\n
Making a case for a production offset tax for theatre as well as wider reforms, Sydney Theatre Company\u2019s executive director Anne Dunn said the arts was at a \u201ctipping point\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are seeing creatives leave Sydney. We are seeing creatives and arts workers leave the industry completely. We are seeing casts get smaller because the companies can\u2019t produce the works of scale we once were able to, so we have seen a real loss to the sector across all those areas. It\u2019s on the stage, it\u2019s behind the stage, it\u2019s in our workshops. It\u2019s been a really, really tough time, and it\u2019s a time that I\u2019ve never seen in my 30 years in this business.\u201d<\/p>\n
A joint communique issued late Thursday did not commit to any particular reform, instead restating that government funding alone would not keep up with rising costs, the scale of the challenge and the many opportunities our cultural sector presents.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the other big levers that could be pulled is tax reform. Annual funding comes and goes with budget cycles but structural changes to our tax system could boost culture for generations to come.\u201d the ministers said.<\/p>\n
\u201cTax reform is not easy, but we are at a unique moment where crisis meets opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n