TTRANSCRIPT - DOORSTOP, ART OF TAX REFROM, SYDNEY - THURSDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2025

E&OE TRANSCRIPT

DOORSTOP, ART OF TAX REFROM, SYDNEY

THURSDAY, 25 SEPTEMBER 2025

SUBJECTS:  ART OF TAX REFORM SUMMIT, NEW ABS DATA ON ARTS AND CULTURAL SECTOR, REVIVE, CONSULTATION ON THE NEXT CULTURAL POLICY, SCULPTURE BY THE SEA, ANDREW HASTIE, NZYQ

BURKE: I want to thank John Graham and Daniel Mookhey, as a New South Wales hosts, and my other Arts Minister colleagues for coming together today.

When the Federal Government launched its cultural policy Revive, we did so when the sector had taken a huge hit. Before the pandemic, it was already in a weakened state and then during the pandemic, it really got smashed in different ways.

One of the things that we said we'd do in Revive was to make sure that we started keeping the statistics accurately. The way arts used to be measured, it used to include a little bit more than arts. The people selling clothes are Best & Less counted as arts workers in the official stats, as were people working across the harbour at Taronga Zoo, or the people beside us at the Botanic Gardens.

So, we got the ABS to really hone in, on what was the correct way to measure how the sector was going. The first set of figures came out last year, and today, we're releasing the new set of figures, which is the first time we've had a year on year comparison for actual figures as to how the sector's going.

Year on year, we've got a 6.6 per cent growth in economic activity, in the arts sector. That's 6.6% at the same time that the GDP was growing at 4.1%. A $67 billion industry. Our cultural policy was called Revive, and that has begun.

Now, obviously, that's not going to be the lived experience of everyone who works in the sector. There’s plenty of areas in the sector that are doing it really tough. But it does mean that what we did with our cultural policy, and with the $880 million investment, has started to make a difference.

The process of Revive was, it's a five year cultural policy, and we said after three years, we'd start the review. That means the review starts next year. People are quick to come forward with submissions about more funding. But submissions about how you can potentially tweak the tax system are more complex.

I'm really grateful to New South Wales for making sure that the work is being done now to feed into next year's consultation for the next cultural policy. That makes sure that when we have proposals for funding on the table, we're going to have proposals for tax reform on the table as well.

I don't know where that consultation will land, but I do know it will be better informed because of the work that's being done today. So, I'm very grateful to New South Wales, I'm grateful to all the arts organisations and my fellow Ministers for the work that they're all doing.

But effectively, as a nation, we need to get this right. It's called a cultural policy for a reason. This goes right to the heart of who we are, how we see ourselves, how we see each other, and how the world comes to know us. And that means you need to get the funding right and the taxation policy right.

JOURNO: Iceland, Spain, Slovenia, Netherlands, all vowing to pull out of Eurovision 2026. If Israel participates, do you think Australia should follow in their footsteps?

BURKE: Australia doesn't have a boycott policy with respect to that.

JOURNO: One of the most popular ideas in the consultation paper was exempting art prizes from tax another one was relaxing GST settings. Are these things the federal government is open to?

BURKE: We start the consultation process next year. So what I'm open to is making sure that we don't just get funding proposals. Now, one of the things, if you look at the submissions we received from when we did the consultation for Revive, was we had a couple of passing ideas for tax reform, but almost everything was funding. You need a lot more rigour and work to determine how you'll, in fact, do taxation options.

So what I want to make sure of is that next year, when we're doing the consultation, that we have both funding- nothing I can do that'll stop funding proposals from coming forward. But I just want to make sure, side by side, we've got some good tax ideas.

Now, the ideas that you referred to there, are ideas that have previously been put to me. I want to make sure that the rigour is done in advance of next year to work those through, but I'm not going to be ruling ideas in or out.

JOURNO: The art sector is struggling at the moment, do we have time for a talk fest?

BURKE: As I say there are many parts of the arts sector of that are very much struggling. [INAUDIEBLE] You don't get bigger reform without doing the rigorous work first and what's happening today is the rigorous work's being done.

Three years ago, nearly, we brought together Revive, and we did big structural reform as to how Creative Australia would operate, how our funding mechanisms would operate, but we did not do big structural reform with respect to taxation.

There's been some taxation changes in screen that have happened. But a whole lot of work had happened in advance of those issues coming to the table of government, we’re right at the beginning of a whole lot of these different ideas, and I want the work to be done. New South Wales, bringing the stage together today, is making sure that works done. So that when we get to consultation for the next cultural policy, the issues are well formed and right in front of us to make decisions.

JOURNO: Has the government done any modelling of how much some of these proposed tax reforms would cost the federal budget?

BURKE: Well, that's one of the reasons why we're welcoming this being done, because this begins, that sort of work.

JOURNO: One of the issues that the screen sector has pointed out, is the lack of government regulation in regards to the local content quotas. Is there any update on that?

BURKE: We don't have an update, but the government's policy has not changed.

JOURNO: Is there any announcement today about more funding for the arts?

BURKE: That's not what I've come for today. The announcement today is the release of the new ABS statistics that I referred to in my opening statements.

JOURNO: That would be the biggest impact for the other, if there was more money from government.

BURKE: That's why, in Revive, you have $880 million of more money, and the creation of Music Australia, the creation of Writing Australia, you had the creation of Creative Workplaces. You had the additional funding that was put forward for the Arts 8, all the training colleges, which had been underfunded for years. You had the additional funding that was put forward for the nine collecting institutions, including the National Gallery of Australia, all of which have been underfunded for years.

I agree with what you're saying, about the significance of additional funding, which is why we've been providing it.

JOURNO: And yet Sculpture by the Sea is crowdfunding, $200,000 to stay afloat.

BURKE: Can I say a couple of things about Sculpture by the Sea, I'm really glad that you've raised it.

I've seen reports from Sculpture by the Sea, and a message that came through to me, claiming that they'd been unable to get funding from Create Australia. I checked with Creative Australia, they hadn’t applied.

Sculpture by the Sea, is a wonderful event. People enjoy going to it. It attracts huge crowds.

But one of the principles we established in our National Cultural Policy Revive was, for too long, artists have been expected to work for free.

For too long, people are treated as though their life's work is a hobby and not a career. And so we have made a decision in Revive - it was there for everyone to see - that we would absolutely prioritise organisations that paid their artists properly.

The last information that I'd received was that to have your works included in Sculpture by the Sea, you were not paid. In fact, you had to pay them.  And I think that's a question that should be put directly to Sculpture by the Sea.

JOURNO: What do you make of Andrew Hastie’s, comments about Australians becoming strangers in their own country due to immigration?

BURKE: Mr. Hastie one, needs to decide whether he's happy with modern Australia or not.

Secondly, he doesn't seem to acknowledge the fact that net overseas migration has already come down 40%.

When you look at total population, we've been at lower levels, than what they projected back in their 2019 budget prior to the pandemic.

But if he wants to make cuts further, he needs to say where. Does he want to make additional cuts to skilled migration? If that's what he wants to do, can he nominate which aged care centres he believes should close? Because without immigration, we don't keep them open. Can he nominate which childcare centres he wants to close? They don't seem to acknowledge two facts. One, the numbers have been coming down, but we're making sure that the system is tailored to meet the needs of Australia.

But secondly, when they talk about housing, they seem completely blind to their own record. They did have nine years, and in those nine years, they did build 373 social houses. In nine years, 373.

You put that up against the $42 billion or in the order of that that we have as part of our housing plan. We do need more houses.

But if he wants to make further cuts to immigration, he needs to say where. Is he going to smash the international education sector? Is he going to close aged care, childcare? They’re questions for him to answer, and the moment you get to detail, he seems to go missing.

JOURNO: Does Hastie’s rhetoric erode social cohesion?

BURKE: Look, I like modern Australia. I really like our country. I love Australia. I see so much strength in what so many people from around the world have brought here. 

We're a better country for it. It's one thing to just sort of give these emotional, ‘Oh but this is bad’ and ‘total numbers’. He's actually the shadow minister. So give us some specifics, which visa programs would you cut? 

[LAST QUESTION]

JOURNO: Have any members of the NZYQ cohort been deported to Nauru? What is the timeline for deportment deportations? 

BURKE: I made clear that when I first announced it, which was well before the last election, that it would be tested in the courts, and that's happened. 

So, for those initial visas, they're being tested in the courts, then when Parliament last sat, because we now know exactly what lines of argument are being used in the courts, we made some further amendments, which should expedite the further removals. So, it'll become public as that starts to happen. 

But let me say this, if someone has their visa cancelled, they should leave Australia. This is not complex. 

We are talking about people who've had their visas cancelled, and most people who come here are good people and obey the rules. Almost everyone. 

But when someone comes here, you know if someone comes into your home and they start breaking the place, you ask them to leave.

We don't cancel visas lightly. When a visa is cancelled, people should leave.

ENDS