The Australia Council has been asked to create a new policy punishing ‘unreasonable’ refusal of corporate sponsorship

George Brandis has not ruled out penalising arts companies and festivals for refusing funding from a tobacco company under a new policy he has asked the Australia Council to create.



Arts organisations could be penalised with a reduction or refusal of federal funding if they reject sponsorship from corporate sponsors on “unreasonable” grounds under the policy being developed.

The arts minister has asked the Australia Council, which distributed commonwealth arts funding, to develop the policy after Biennale Sydney parted ways with Transfield Holdings and its chairman, Luca Belgiorno-Nettis, after artists objected to the company’s links to Transfield Services, a contractor at Australia’s Manus Island detention centre.

Brandis has called the decision, which Transfield Holdings said was mutual, “preposterously unreasonable” but could not rule out penalties applying to arts festivals and companies which refused funding from tobacco companies.

“I myself don’t think arts company should reject bona fide arts sponsorship from commercially sound prospective partners on political grounds,” he said when asked on ABC radio if refusing money from a tobacco company would be classed as unreasonable.

If the policy Australia Council develops does not satisfy Brandis he has already said he will force the council to adopt one up to his standards.

He said the definition of unreasonable was up to the Australia Council and it might appoint an arbiter which could be the council itself, the minister or another third party.

When asked what would be reasonable grounds to refuse private funding Brandis replied: “We’re talking hypothetical but let us say for instance an arts company or arts festival is approached by a prospective private partner and the arts company or festival had concerns about whether the prospective private partner had the financial substance to give the money that it was promising.”

The Australia Council Act 2013 expressly forbids a minister from intervening on funding distribution in specific cases but Brandis has argued he is using the provision which allows the arts minister to direct function and policies of the council.

“It’s fine for artists to make political statements, this is free country, I’m a member of a government that’s trying to make it a freer country, artists are perfectly entitled to have their own view, they’re perfectly entitled to decline to participate in an arts festival even if it is for reasons as irrational as these particular arts in this particular case,” he said.

“But what we can’t have in this country is a culture where arts companies and arts administrators are not encouraging private philanthropy. The heart and soul of good arts funding policy is to look to every explore avenue to encourage private philanthropy.”

The chairman of the Australia Council, Rupert Myer, has issued a one line statement saying he will respond directly to Brandis’s request.

Sydney Biennale is yet to comment on the request Brandis has made for a change of policy.

There are differing opinions in the arts community on the actions of Sydney Biennale and the new policy being proposed by Brandis.

Opera Australia’s artistic director, Lyndon Terracini, said Brandis had the support of some artists.

“As an artist I find it very disappointing that a small number of artists would jeopardise the livelihood of many others and undermine the future of an event that’s meant so much to so many over the years,” he said, referring to the boycott of Sydney Biennale which led to it severing ties with Transfield Holdings.

“The minister is expressing the views that many in the arts community have already expressed privately.”

The artistic director of Brink Productions, Chris Drummond, said the Biennale had a unique set of circumstances and Brandis was not responding correctly to a nuanced and complex situation.

“Every arts company is constantly thinking about the relationship they have with potential sponsors. It’s not just about the money, you’re looking for a like-minded ethos,” he said.

“A children’s festival is not going to take sponsorship from a soft drink company. I think everybody would accept that. So already there are subjective decisions that come into funding. But also I suspect the Biennale have got lots of relationships with corporates whose politics are to the right, so it’s not an example of something that happens very regularly.”