Australian Governments spent $7 billion on cultural activities

Australia's federal, state and local governments spent just over $7 billion on cultural activities during 2012/13, according to new figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Outlining the findings, ABS Culture, Recreation and Migration Statistics Director Andrew Middleton stated “state and territory governments contributed nearly half this amount or $3.3 billion, the federal government contributed one-third or $2.4 billion, and local government contributed $1.4 billion, on cultural activities.

"Overall, the total government expenditure on cultural activities in 2012/13 went up by 1% - about $70 million - from the previous year. The highest expenditure of Australian Government funds was on radio and television services, at $1.3 billion in 2012/13, which was a similar amount to expenditure in 2011/12.

"At the state and territory government level, the biggest expenditure was for environmental heritage, this includes national parks, flora and fauna reserves, zoos, aquaria and botanic gardens, with $1.3 billion.

"Recurrent expenditure was $6 billion, an increase of 2% from 2011/12, and capital expenditure was $1 billion which was a decrease of 4% from 2011/12."

Click here for details of Cultural Funding by Government, 2012/13 (cat. no. 4183.0), which includes data for individual states and territories, available for free on the ABS website.

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