Arts minister warns government could pull festival funding after organisers cut ties with sponsor over links to detention centres

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

George Brandis has threatened the withdrawal of commonwealth funding for the Sydney Biennale festival for “blackballing” Transfield Holdings after it severed ties with the company because of an artist protest over its contract work on an offshore detention centre.

The arts minister has written to the Australia Council, which distributes arts funding on behalf of the federal government, and asked them to develop a policy to penalise arts organisations that refuse funding from corporate sponsors on “unreasonable grounds”.

If he is not satisfied with a new policy developed by the council Brandis said he would direct the council himself to force them to adopt a policy to his liking.

“At a time when government funding for the arts is, like all demands upon the budget, under pressure, it is difficult to justify funding for an arts festival which has announced to its principal private partner that it would prefer not to receive its financial support,” he wrote to the chairman of the Australia Council, Rupert Myer.

“You will readily understand that taxpayers will say to themselves: ‘If the Sydney Biennale doesn’t need Transfield’s money, why should they be asking for ours?’”

He added: “Even more damagingly the decision sends precisely the wrong message to other actual or potential corporate sponsors of the arts: that they may be insulted, and possibly suffer reputational damage, if an arts company or festival decides to make a political statement about an aspect of their commercial relationships with government, where it disapproves of a particular government policy which those commercial relationships serve.”

The Sydney Biennale and Transfield Holdings, which has a contract with the offshore detention centre on Manus Island, mutually decided to end their partnership last week after individual artists started a campaign to boycott the event.

The chairman of the company, Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, also resigned his position as chairman of the festival. Transfield Holdings was a founding member and benefactor of the festival.

In the letter initially reported by the Australian and which has been seen by Guardian Australia, Brandis called the situation “shameful” and the decision to sever ties between Transfield Holdings and the festival an “appalling insult” to the Belgiorno-Nettis family.

“Equally appalling is the fact that the board of the Biennale, apparently under pressure from certain individual artists, has decided to decline to accept funding from a generous benefactor, because of the political opinion of those individual artists, concerning a matter which has nothing to do with the Sydney Biennale,” Brandis wrote.

“Artists like everybody else are entitled to voice their political opinions, but I view with deep concern the effective blackballing of a benefactor, implicit in this decision, merely because of its commercial arrangements.”

The current commonwealth funding agreement provided for the festival through the Australia Council expires next year.

“No doubt when renewal of the funding agreement beyond 2015 arises for consideration, the Australia Council will have regard to this episode and to the damage which the board of the Sydney Biennale has done,” Brandis wrote.

The Australia Council Act 2013 says a minister is “unable to give direction in relation to the making of a decision by the council, in a particular case, in relation to the provision of support” but the minister does have the power to direct the council in relation to performance of function and exercise of powers.

“Those words are plainly wide enough to include matters of policy and funding criteria,” he said.

“I would ask the Australia Council to develop a policy which deals with cases where an applicant for Australia Council funding refuses funding offered by corporate sponsors, or terminates a current funding agreement.”

Brandis wants the policy to deal with cases in which rejecting of corporate funding is seen as “unreasonable” and directly link it to the provision of Australia Council funding.

“The policy should further consider whether all future funding agreements should contain a clause that stipulates that it is a condition of Australia Council funding that the applicant does not unreasonably refuse private sector funding, or does not unreasonably terminate an existing funding agreement with a private partner,” Brandis wrote.

Brandis explicitly said if he was not satisfied with a new policy drafted by the council then he would dictate it himself.

“Transfield has been an exemplary corporate citizen and its record of philanthropic support for arts companies and events has few equals in Australia,” the letter said.

“Mr Belgiorno-Nettis AM, and members of the Belgiorno-Nettis family, are outstanding Australians and exceptionally generous arts patrons. The decision for the board of the Biennale is an appalling insult to them.”

Australia Council is yet to comment on the letter which requested a discussion between Brandis and the chairman.

The letter comes after Malcolm Turnbull slammed artists “vicious ingratitude” for campaigning against accepting funding from Transfield Holdings.