Federal budget to include $535 million funding injection for Australia’s cultural institutions

After being allowed to fall into a “shocking state of disrepair”, nine of Australia’s key cultural institutions are to benefit from $535 million in funding over four year in the upcoming Federal budget.

After years of underfunding, Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke and Federal Finance Minister Katy Gallagher will make the pre-budget announcement tomorrow, delivering much needed funds to institutions including the National Gallery of Australia (NGA), the National Library of Australia (NLA), the National Museum of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the Museum of Australian Democracy, the National Archives and the National Film and Sound Archive, along with the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney and the Bundanon Trust in Shoalhaven, will share the allocation, with $38 million in new money from the previous budget.

The funding forms part of the Federal Government’s national cultural policy, aimed at creating a “strong cultural infrastructure” for the nation.

Advising that the funding would ensure people could visit the institutions and enjoy them without questioning their structural integrity, Minister Burke stated “it is a disgrace that the former coalition government allowed these institutions to fall into such a shocking state of disrepair.”

On Monday, the NLA’s Trove initiative (the nation’s endangered digitised archive) - comprising more than six billion records of newspapers, journals, books, pictures, maps and other documents - was promised a $33 million support package from the Federal Government.

Neglected in recent Federal budgets and with its funding set to run out in just three months, Trove’s funding will be allocated separately from the National Library.

Minister Burke announced the funding as part of Revive, the Federal Government's National Cultural Policy to "maintain our strong cultural infrastructure".

In a statement, Minister Burke said the funding was to make good the "mess" left behind by the former government, which had poured funds into Canberra’s Australian War Memorial.

Last month the plight of the NGA was called a “national disgrace” after Nine newspapers published images of buckets and towels capturing water leaking from the venue’s walls and ceilings, and reports of artworks having to be removed from walls for protection.

Needing about $265 million over the next decade to pay for urgent repairs to make the 40-year-old building suitable, its dire financial position will now be reversed.

In a letter to Minister Burke, obtained by the ABC under freedom of information laws, the NGA's Chair had expressed his worries and foreshadowed money-saving measures the NGA might have had to take, including charging entry and letting staff go.

Images: The National Gallery of Australia (top) and the National Library of Australia (below).