The Undoing of Australian Cultural Policy: the 1976 IAC Inquiry Assistance to the Performing Arts
Abstract
This article examines a critical juncture in Australian cultural policy, the 1976 Industries Assistance Commission’s Assistance to the Performing Arts Report. Rejecting public good arguments for government support of arts and culture, the Report articulated the first economic rationalist case for evaluating their benefits. The article looks briefly at the style and arguments of the Report before turning to the issue of who wrote it. It sketches a prosopography (multi-career line analysis) of the 25 Commissioners appointed to the IAC in the 1970s, their ages, backgrounds, educational credentials etc., then investigates the biographies of three in more detail: Alf Rattigan, the founding Chairman, and Richard Boyer and Peter Robinson, the Commissioners responsible for writing Assistance to the Performing Arts. The focus is the social and intellectual milieu of the Commissioners and their network links to Australia’s political, administrative and media elites. A later section considers the positive reception of the Report by some researchers on the left in the ‘cultural policy moment’ of 1992. I argue these researchers were insufficiently aware of the IAC’s role in promulgating an ascendant neoliberal order and its dephenomenalisation of culture in a managerialist logic lacking genuine commitment to progressive social policy goals.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Age editorial. 2004. “Leader’s Tariff Cut Blunder”. Age. 1 January, 2004: np. https://www.theage.com.au/national/leaders-tariff-cut-blunder-20040101-gdx1di.html
Australian Government. 2023. Revive: A Place for Every Story, A Story for Every Place—Australia’s Cultural Policy for the Next Five Years. Commonwealth of Australia. https://www.arts.gov.au/publications/national-cultural-policy-revive-place-every-story-story-every-place
Bowker, Geoffrey C., and Susan Leigh Star. 1999. Sorting Things out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge, Mass.; London: MIT Press.
Bramble, Tom, and Rick Kuhn. 2009. “Continuity or Discontinuity in the Recent History of the Australian Labor Party?” Australian Journal of Political Science 44: 281–94.
Brett, Judith. 2020. “The Coal Curse: Resources, Climate and Australia’s Future.” Quarterly Essay 78. Carlton, VIC: Black Ink.
Burckhardt, Jacob. 1860. The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy.
———. 1943. Force and Freedom: Reflections on History. New York: Pantheon Books.
Carmichael, Bill. 2005. “Trade Policy at the Cross-Roads.” Pacific Economic Papers 351: 1.
Clark, Andrew. 2013. “Financial Review: the Paper that Shaped Australia.” Australian Financial Review. November 25 , 2013. https://www.afr.com/companies/media-and-marketing/financial-review-the-paper-that-shaped-australia-20131125-iysoy
Clemens, Justin. 2003. “Cultural Studies, Cultural Policy, and the Professed Anti-Romanticism of Ian Hunter.” In The Romanticism of Contemporary Theory: Institution, Aesthetics, Nihilism, 155–170. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT; Ashgate.
Craik, Jennifer. 2007. Re-visioning Arts and Cultural Policy: Current Impasses and Future Directions. Canberra: ANU Press.
Colebatch, T. 2005. “The Year the Economy Went ‘Bung’.” Age, January 1, 2005. https://www.theage.com.au/national/the-year-the-economy-went-bung-20050101-gdzadf.html
Consandine, Marion. 2007. “Richard Boyer (1923–1989).” Australian Dictionary of Biography, vol. 17. https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/boyer-richard-12243
Coombs, Anne. 1996. Sex and Anarchy: The Life and Death of the Sydney Push. Ringwood, VIC: Viking.
Coombs, Herbert Cole. 1981. Trial Balance: Issues of My Working Life. Melbourne: Sun Books.
Corden, Max. 2005. “Effective Protection and I.” History of Economics Review 42 (Summer): 1–11.
———. 2006. “Protection and Liberalisation in Australia and Abroad.” The Australian Economic Review 2 (2): 141–154.
———. 2017. Lucky Boy in the Lucky Country: The Autobiography of Max Corden. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Cunningham, Stuart. 1992a. Framing culture: Criticism and Policy in Australia. North Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
———. 1992b. “The Cultural Policy Debate Revisited.” Meanjin 51 (3): 533–544.
Creative Nation. 1994. Department of Communication and the Arts. Canberra: Commonwealth Government of Australia.
Davies, William. 2014. The Limits of Neoliberalism. London: Sage.
Department of Business and Consumer Affairs (BACA). 1978. “Media Release: Appointments to the Industries Assistance Commission 78/135.” Canberra: Parliament of Australia. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/media/pressrel/HPR10025437/upload_binary/HPR10025437.pdf;fileType=application/pdf#search=%22Industries%20Assistance%20Commission%201970s%20media%2078/153%22
Draper, W. J. 1980. Who's Who in Australia 1980, compiled and edited by W. J. Draper, 23rd edition. Melbourne: Herald and Weekly Times.
Farquharson, John. n.d. “Rattigan, Godfrey Alfred (Alf) (1911–2000).” Obituaries Australia. https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/rattigan-godfrey-alfred-alf-839
Flew, Terry. 2014. “Six Theories of Neoliberalism.” Thesis Eleven, 122 (1): 49–71.
———. 2016. “Neoliberalism, Voice and National Media Systems: an Interview with Terry Flew.” Networking Knowledge 9, no. 5 (July): 1–10.
Frow, John. 1992. “Rationalisation and the Public Sphere.” Meanjin 51 (3): 505–16.
Gardiner-Garden, John. 2009. Commonwealth Arts Policy and Administration. Dept. of Parliamentary Services, Canberra ACT. https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/BN/0809/ArtsPolicy
Gibson, Lisanne. 2001. Uses of Art: Constructing Australian Identities. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press in assoc. with the Australian Key Centre for Cultural and Media Policy, Griffith University.
Glover, Stuart. 2011. “Revisiting the Cultural Policy Moment: Queensland Cultural Policy from Goss to Bligh.” Queensland Review 18 (2): 190–206.
———. 2016. “The Coming, the Going, and the Limits of Australian Cultural Policy Studies: the Space for a New Pragmatics.” Accessed Aug. 30, 2018. http://www.stuartglover.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/The-Coming-the-Going-and-the-Limits-of-ACPS.pdf
Goodall, Peter. 1995. High Culture, Popular Culture: The Long Debate. St. Leonards, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Green, Roy, and Phillip Toner. 2014. “Productivity Commission’s Myopic Failure on Industry Assistance.” The Conversation, July 2, 2014. https://theconversation.com/productivity-commissions-myopic-failure-on-industry-assistance-28616
Gruen, Nick. 2002. “Economic Reform—Renovating the Agenda: With an Example from the Market for Information.” Australian Journal of Public Administration 6 (1): 90–105.
Hands, Karen. 2021. “Too Big to Fail: Rethinking the Foundations of Australia’s Performing Arts Policies.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 27 (4): 437–48.
Hanckel, Norman. 2002. “Interview with Norman Hanckel [transcript] Interviewer: Rob Linn.” JD Somerville Oral History Coll., State Library of SA.
Hawkins, Gay. 1997. “What a Beautiful Set of Numbers.” Culture and Policy 8 (1): 65–72.
Healey, Justin. 2019. Poverty and Inequality in Australia. Spinney Press.
Hunter, Ian. 1992. “The Humanities Without Humanism.” Meanjin 51 (3): 479–90.
Humphrys, Elizabeth. 2019. How Labour Built Neoliberalism. Brill Studies in Critical Social Science Series. Boston: Brill.
Industries Assistance Commission. 1996. Inquiry into the Performing Arts. Parliamentary Paper No. 290. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/publications/tabledpapers/HPP052016005990/upload_pdf/HPP052016005990.pdf
Johanson, Katya. 2000. “The Role of Australia’s Cultural Council 1945-1995.” PhD Diss., University of Melbourne.
———. 2008. “How Australian Industry Policy Shaped Cultural Policy.” International Journal of Cultural Policy 14 (2): 139–148.
Kelly, Bert. 2012. “Bert Kelly on Alf Rattigan’s Industry Assistance: The Inside Story.” Economics.org.au. https://economics.org.au/2012/03/bert-kelly-alf-rattigan-industry-assistance-inside-story/
Legge, J. S. 1968. Who’s Who in Australia, compiled and edited by J. S. Legge, 19th edition, Melbourne: Herald and Weekly Times.
Levy, Bronwen. 1992. “Ruffling the Feathers of the Cultural Polity.” Meanjin 51 (3): 552–55.
Macdonnell, Justin. 1992. Arts, Minister?: Government Policy and the Arts. Strawberry Hills NSW: Currency Press.
McGuiness, Padraic. 2001. “Voice of Authority Did Not Hesitate to Interject.” Australian Financial Review, August 16, 2001.
Meredyth, Denise. 1992. “Changing Minds: Cultural Criticism and the Problem of Principle.” Meanjin 51 (3): 491–504.
Meyrick, Julian. 1997. “Accounting for the Arts in the 90s—The Growth of Arts Administration in Australia 1975–1995.” Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 26 (4): 285–308.
———. 2013. “Suiting the Action to the Word: The Changing Rhetoric of Australian Cultural Policy.” Asia Pacific Journal of Arts and Cultural Management 10 (1).
———. 2014. “The Logic of Culture: Australian Theatre and the Empty Signifier.” Australasian Drama Studies 64: 133–154.
———. 2017. Australian Theatre After the New Wave: Policy, Subsidy and the Alternative Artist. Leiden: Brill.
Millmow, Alex. 2021. “Exposing the tariff bludgers.” Australian Financial Review, Nov. 17, 2021. https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/exposing-the-tariff-bludgers-20211117-p599r9
Mirowski, Philip. 2009. “Postface: Defining Neoliberalism.” In The Road from Mont Pèlerin: The Making of the Neoliberal Thought Collective, edited by Philip Mirowski and Dieter Plehwe, 417–56. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.
Morris, Meaghan. 1992. “A Gadfly Bites Back.” Meanjin 51 (3): 545–51.
Namier, Lewis. 1957. The Structure of Politics at the Accession of George III. London: Macmillan.
O’Connor, Justin. 2016. After the Creative Industries: Why We Need Cultural Economy. Platform Paper 47. Surry Hills: Currency House Press.
———. 2020. “The Creative Imaginary: Cultural and Creative Industries and the Future of Modernity.” In Handbook on Geographies of Creativity, edited by Lily Kong and Anjeline de Dios, 15–36. Edward Elgar Handbooks Series.
O’Regan, Tom. 1992. “Some Reflections on the ‘Policy Moment’.” Meanjin 51 (3): 517–32.
Powell, Alan, and Richard Snape. 1993. “The Contribution of Applied General Equilibrium Analysis to Policy Reform in Australia.” Journal of Policy Modeling 15 (4): 393–414.
Patronage, Power and the Muse: Inquiry into Commonwealth Assistance to the Arts (‘McLeay Report’). 1986. House of Representatives Standing Committee on Expenditure. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.
Productivity Commission. 2003. From Industry Assistance to Productivity: 30 Years of ‘The Commission’, Australian Government, Canberra. https://www.pc.gov.au/about/history/thirty-years
Pusey, Michael. 1992. Economic Rationalism in Canberra: a Nation-building State Changes its Mind. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press.
———. 2007. “Economic Rationalism.” In Oxford Companion to Australian Politics, edited by Brian Galligan and Winsome Roberts. Oxford University Press. https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195555431.001.0001/acref-9780195555431-e-107
Radbourne, Jennifer. 1992. “Commonwealth Arts Administration: An Historical Perspective 1945–1990.” PhD Diss., University of Queensland.
———. 1997. “Creative Nation: A Policy for Leaders or Followers?" Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society 26 (4): 271–82.
Rattigan, Godfrey Alfred. 1986. Industry Assistance: The Inside Story. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.
Robinson, Peter. 1952. “Japanese Unions Prepare to Show Their Hand.” Examiner, November 26, 1952, 2.
———. 1953a. “Japan’s Labour In Bid for Power.” Daily Examiner, January 7, 1953, 3.
———. 1953b. “Big Struggle Faces Unions in Japan.” Examiner, December 8, 1953, 2.
———. 1954a. “Freedom For Women.” The Sydney Morning Herald, July 17, 1954, 16.
———. 1954b. “Western Culture for Japanese.” The Sydney Morning Herald. October 2, 1954, 15.
———. 1977. “The Development and Formulation of Economic Policy.” In Reforming Australian Government: the Coombs Report and Beyond, edited by C. Hazlehurst and J.R. Nethercote, 139–146. Canberra: Royal Institute of Public Administration in assoc. with ANU Press.
———. 1978. The Crisis in Australian Capitalism. Melbourne: VCTA Publishing with the National Times.
———. 2000. “For Rattigan it was Tariffs without Tears.” Australian Financial Review, March 6, 2000. https://www.afr.com/policy/for-rattigan-it-was-tariffs-without-tears-20000306-k9bte
Rolsky, Benjamin. 2022. “Religion of the Market: On Gary Gerstle’s ‘The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order’.” Los Angeles Review of Books, July 18, 2022.
Rowse, Tim. 2002. Nugget Coombs: A Reforming Life. Cambridge; Oakleigh, VIC: Cambridge University Press.
———. 1985. Arguing the Arts. Ringwood, Melbourne: Penguin.
Schedvin, Boris. 2008. Emissaries of Trade: A History of the Trade Commissioner Service. Austrade, Dept. of Foreign Affairs and Trade. https://www.dfat.gov.au/sites/default/files/history-of-trade-commissioner-service.pdf
Schultz, Julianne. 2022. The Idea of Australia. Crows Nest, NSW: Allen & Unwin.
Stevenson, Deborah. 2000. Art and Organisation. St Lucia, QLD: University of Queensland Press.
Stokes, Geoffrey. 2014. “The Rise and Fall of Economic Rationalism.” In Studies in Australian Political Rhetoric, edited by John Uhr and Ryan Walter, 195–220. Canberra: ANU Press.
Stone, Lawrence. 1971. “Prosopography.” Daedalus 100 (1): 46–79.
Stone, Lawrence, and Jeanne C. Fawtier Stone. 1984. An Open Elite?: England 1540-1880. Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press.
Throsby, David. 1982. “Economics and the Arts: a Review of Seven Years.” Economic Record 58 (3): 242–52.
Toohey, Brian. 1992. “Setting a Political Framework for Economic Growth”. Australian Financial Review, Nov 6, 1992.
Tribune. 1976. “The Industries Assistance Commission: Rationalising the Irrational.” Oct. 20, 1976, 2.
Tucker, K. A. 1977. “Economies for the arts or art for the economy?” Media International Australia 4 (1): 1–8.
Ward, Stuart. 2005. “‘Culture up to Our Arseholes’: Projecting Post‐Imperial Australia.” Australian Journal of Politics & History 51 (11), 60–71.
Warhurst, John. 1982. “The Industries Assistance Commission and the Making of Primary Industry Policy.” Australian Journal of Public Administration 41 (1): 15–32.
Whitlam, Gough. 1973. Prime Ministers Transcripts: Press statement No 165, Dec. 19, 1973. http://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-3104
———. 1974a. Prime Ministers Transcripts: Press statement No 278, July 2, 1974. https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-3313
———. 1974b. Prime Ministers Transcripts: Press statement No 356, Oct. 30, 1974. http://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-3439
Yeatman, Anna, and Bogdan Costea. 2018. The Triumph of Managerialism? New Technologies of Government and their Implications for Value. London; New York: Rowman and Littlefield International.
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.