Party says it would close Catalyst body established by George Brandis and return remaining money to the Australia Council

Labor has pledged it would close the Catalyst arts funding body established by George Brandis and return any remaining funds to the Australia Council.

Releasing Labor’s arts policy, the opposition leader, Bill Shorten, the party’s arts spokesman, Mark Dreyfus, and its communications spokesman, Jason Clare, described Catalyst as a “ministerial slush fund”.

The fund was originally called the national program for excellence in the arts. It was established by Brandis, who funded projects at his own discretion when he was arts minister, with $105m from the Australia Council.

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After Malcolm Turnbull’s ascension to leadership, the new arts minister, Mitch Fifield, rebadged the program as Catalyst, changed the guidelines and returned $32m in funding to the Australia Council.



Labor now says it would close Catalyst, return the funding to the Australia Council and give the council a further $20m a year for four years from 2017.



Labor would also provide $60m for the ABC to produce local drama, increase the regional arts fund by $8m over four years and provide $5.4m to expand the Live Music Office.

“This boost to our ABC will deliver an estimated 30 hours a year of high-quality ABC programming,” the Labor statement said. “Recent successful examples like Rake, The Code, Janet King, Redfern Now, Anzac Girls and The Beautiful Lie have shown how powerful local drama can be in expressing the national character.”

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Labor said the regional arts fund would increase employment and professional development opportunities for regional and remote artists.

On the contentious parallel importation restrictions, Labor would commit only to considering any proposals or recommendations to adjust the territorial copyright regime “with caution”.

Labor will also provide $2m a year to expand school music programs such as Music: Count Us In, Musica Viva in Schools and the Song Room.

