National Cultural Policy | Office for the Arts

A comprehensive policy to revive the arts, entertainment and cultural landscape as central to Australia's future.

30 Jan 2023

The Government has released the landmark Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place—Australia's cultural policy for the next five years.

Developed following extensive feedback received throughout national consultation, Revive will change the trajectory of the arts, entertainment and cultural sector after its most difficult period in decades.

The policy will stimulate new employment and training opportunities, ensure creative workers can access fair remuneration and safe work environments, and that intellectual property rights of our creators are protected.

It also recognises the crucial place of First Nations stories and the importance of self-determination. It supports measures to sustain and grow First Nations arts and culture, which will enhance connections to Country and protect these diverse cultural expressions for future generations.

This includes:

Initiative	Funding
Establishing Creative Australia—the centrepiece of the policy, which will restore and modernise the Australia Council for the Arts. With additional funding over 4 years from 2023–24, Creative Australia will provide greater strategic oversight and engagement across the sector. Within Creative Australia, a dedicated First Nations-led body will be formed. This is critical to self-determination, supporting the telling of First Nations histories and stories, and to strengthening the capacity of First Nations creative workers. In addition, the Government will establish new bodies within Creative Australia to strengthen music and writing. Music Australia will support the industry to grow through strategic initiatives and industry partnerships, research, skills development and export promotion. Writers Australia will provide direct support to the literature sector from 2025, for writers and publishers to grow local and international audiences for Australian books, and establish a Poet Laureate for Australia. The Government will also establish a Centre for Arts and Entertainment Workplaces within Creative Australia to provide advice on issues of pay, safety and welfare in the arts and entertainment sector, refer matters to the relevant authorities, and develop codes of conduct and resources for the sector. The functions of Creative Partnerships Australia will also be transferred to Creative Australia to create synergies between public and private partnerships, as well as government and philanthropic investment.	$199.0 million
Introducing stand-alone legislation to protect First Nations knowledge and cultural expressions, including to address the harm caused by fake art, merchandise and souvenirs.	$13.4 million
Providing increased investment to support digital games developers and small and medium independent games studios through Screen Australia. This complements the Digital Games Tax Offset, which will support growth in large-scale games development in Australia.	$12.0 million
Establishing a program of long-term loans of works from the National Gallery of Australia's collection to share with regional and suburban cultural institutions across Australia.	$11.8 million
Digitising at-risk First Nations cultural material to preserve them for future generations.	$3.8 million
Establishing a First Nations Languages Policy Partnership between First Nations representatives and Australian governments to improve outcomes for First Nations peoples.	$11.0 million
Enhancing the Resale Royalty Scheme to provide royalty payments to visual artists, including First Nations artists, from the commercial sale of eligible works internationally	$1.8 million
Developing an Arts and Disability Associated Plan, under Australia's Disability Strategy 2021–31, to support people with disability to access and participate fully in the cultural and creative life of Australia.	$5.0 million
Increasing support for regional arts and culture through an increase to the Regional Arts Fund.	$8.5 million
Supporting specialist in-school arts education programs that directly draw from cultural and creative sector expertise, focussing on areas of identified disadvantage	$2.6 million
Modernising and extending the Public and Educational Lending Right Schemes to include digital content under the schemes.	$12.9 million
Providing pilot funding to support access to art and music therapy programs, and generate valuable data on the broader community impacts of, and demand for these services	$4.2 million
TOTAL	$286.0 million

Investments through Revive will provide a pathway for arts and culture to contribute to all parts of Australian life, to social unity and wellbeing, to our national economy and identity, and to whole-of-government outcomes. Revive will also unleash the potential for arts and culture to further drive economic growth and employment over the next five years.

Implementation of the policy will be overseen by a National Cultural Policy Steering Committee, comprised of representatives across government. In the first phase of implementation, establishing clear benchmarks will be a priority to measure success and monitor and evaluate progress to inform the development of an updated National Cultural Policy in 2027.