Australian Government releases its National Cultural Policy

Like many arts and cultural organisations, AMaGA welcomes the launch of the new National Cultural Policy. In addition to the important primacy of First Nations peoples, their stories and contributions to the arts, we welcome the consideration of the structures required to support the arts and the people who work within them. We look forward to seeing how AMaGA's First Peoples: A Roadmap for Enhancing Indigenous Engagement in Museums and Galleries might form part of this conversation. Equally, we are pleased to see the inclusion of an Arts Disability plan and a focus on working conditions across the arts with the formation of the Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces. We eagerly anticipate the arrival of the May budget and how it addresses the financial position of the national cultural organisations. 

Given that over 50% of our members and stakeholders are from regional and remote areas, we are delighted to see more funding directed to these areas through the Regional Arts Fund and look forward to hearing more about the update of Significance 2.0: a guide to assessing the significance of collections which assists in determining the significance of cultural and heritage objects which we identified in our own Cultural Policy submission. 

We look forward to working with the newly formed Creative Australia to determine how best service organisations such as AMaGA can be better aligned and funded to suit government priorities as well as ideas from our members, including the protection, conservation and accessibility to Australia's important collections and cultural heritage.