Arts Minister cites $10 billion in Federal Government pandemic support for the creative sector

Federal Minister for Communications, Cities and the Arts, Paul Fletcher has today released information citing that Australia’s creative and cultural sectors have benefitted through more than $10 billion in wages and cash-flow support from the Federal Government during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using analysis released by the Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR), estimates show that employees and businesses in cultural and creative sectors received $10.7 billion from the Government to support their operations, including $8 billion in JobKeeper payments between April and December 2020, and $2.7 billion in Boosting Cash Flow for Employers payments to early February 2021.

Explaining that the analysis highlights the Federal Government’s commitment to supporting creative and cultural sectors during the pandemic, Minister Fletcher (pictured) advised “COVID-19 has posed a significant challenge for creative and cultural sectors, which is why we moved quickly to introduce support measures such as JobKeeper to keep organisations open and people in jobs.

“The estimate the government provided in April 2020 was that the combination of the JobKeeper package and other measures would provide support to people working in the cultural and creative sector totalling between $4 billion and $10 billion.”

BCARR’s analysis indicates that more than half of employees and businesses in these sectors received this vital assistance during the peak of the pandemic.

These whole-of-economy measures were supplemented by targeted funding, including more than $800 million announced by the Government for the arts and entertainment sector in 2020, and more than $400 million of additional support announced in 2021.

The combined impact of existing funding and new measures included in this year’s budget is that the Federal Government is investing more than $1 billion into the arts and creative sector in 2021-22.

Click here to view a fact sheet outlining BCARR’s analysis on the Federal Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications website.