At a public debate in Melbourne today, the audience began laughing as the Federal Arts Minister answered a question on arts policy.

"I'm wary of government dictating from on high the direction arts should go," Minister Mitch Fifield said, and there was a kind of bemused gasp from the packed hall of artists and arts administrators.

Then he said:

"I really want to see the sector drive the vision."

And the audience laughed again.

Australia currently doesn't have a national arts policy.

Midway through the campaign, the Liberals also haven't unveiled the policy it will take to the election - even though Labor and the Greens have done so already. When today's debate had been announced it was thought Minister Fifield would maybe use the occasion to unveil his own.

Didn't happen.

Many in the arts community also fear the government has been doing exactly what Minister Fifield said he was against - "dictating on high" about what arts programs should be funded.

The Minister was squaring off with his Labor and Greens arts portfolio counterparts - Mark Dreyfus and Adam Bandt - for the National Arts Election Debate held in Melbourne's Wheeler Centre.

In a rare show of excitement and public engagement during what has been a long campaign fought on issues like superannuation, the room was packed, and it was streaming online and on the big screen in Federation Square.

#ausvotesarts started trending on Twitter, and things got rowdy.

Here's why

One year ago, under then PM Tony Abbott, government funding to the arts was severely re-organised. The government stripped more than $100 million over four years from the Australia Council's discretionary budget - about 30 per cent of the budget.

The Australia Council is the independent organisation that divvies out grants to arts programs, events and organisations all around the country.

The money was used to create the National Program for Excellence in the Arts which gave its funding to projects chosen by then Arts Minister George Brandis. It was thought the Minister would handpick only the arts he liked, and given he was a 58-year-old former barrister and card-carrying conservative, it was thought the move might be damaging for arts companies that were not ballet, opera or classical music companies.

So it turned out.

When Turnbull replaced Abbott, he replaced Brandis with Fifield, gave $32 million back to the Council, and the National Program was renamed Catalyst. In early May, Catalyst announced who would received its funding, and the big winners were ballet and classical music.

A few days later, the Australia Council (which after all the defunding and refunding, still had $60m over four years less to divvy) announced that more than 60 arts companies that had previously received funding would have their applications rejected.

The news was so bad the day of the announcement is known as Black Friday.

So the mood was tense in the Wheeler Centre today when Minister Fifield was asked how he would champion artists (the speakers all had notice of the questions and time to script answers).

"We need to make sure we have an economy that is strong and growing," Minister Fifield said.

"Because an economy that is strong and growing means individuals and corporate philanthropists are in a position to purchase artworks and support individual artists."

"A stronger economy is better for artists."

Our economy is OK, so how are the artists doing?

Not so good, according to the ABS.

Recently there's been a massive drop off in employment in the arts and recreation sector - about 7.4 per cent, which represents about 16,000 jobs.

To put this in perspective, the $50 billion program to build 12 submarines in South Australia (and France) will sustain about 3000 Australian jobs, including contractors.

It's this kind of comparison that angers artists like Norm Horton, from the Feral Arts community arts organisation in Brisbane.

"If you saw that kind of job loss in another sector - manufacturing or mining - there would be a national inquiry and Government would be throwing billions of dollars into it," he told Hack.

Hack spoke with a bunch of Australian musicians who've made it, and all say part of their success was from receiving a government grant early in their careers.

Melbourne muso Jen Cloher, who's also the partner of Courtney Barnett, received a $7,000 government grant to make her first album - it garnered her a Best Female Artist nomination at the Arias.

"The thing you realise is that small amount of money you can give to an artist can just take you so much further," she said.

One program that didn't get its needed funding from Catalyst is Sounds Australia, which promotes Australian music overseas. This is particularly important because Australia is a tiny market for musicians, and we're also a long way from other, bigger markets.

"In the early stages of your career you're not going to be making the kind of income to pay for visas and band members to get over to the States," she told Hack. "You're $20k down and they haven't even stepped on stage.

"But if don't make those moves over and don't get into new markets you're basically limited to Australia - which is fine, but it's a super small market.

Wil Wagner from the Smith Street Band told Hack his band wouldn't have been able to do their first overseas tour without a government grant.

"We've toured both North America and Europe another five times since then and done it off our own bat," he said. "It really is so much more than the money - you can start someone's life going in an incredible direction just by helping out a little bit."

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Labor and the Greens offer cash

Labor is promising to get rid of Catalyst, return the unspent money, and give an extra $80 million over four years to the Australia Council.

It says it will also deliver the ABC an extra $60 million to increase local drama production.

The Greens say they will also get rid of Catalyst, return the unspent money, and give even more money to the Australia Council - about $218m over four years.

They also support setting up a national peak arts policy body to advise government and changes to Centrelink and superannuation to make being an artist more affordable.