
Issue No 113		28 September 2001

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Interview

The Custodian

Interview with Peter Lewis

Labor's arts spokesman Bob McMullan on the role government can play in nurturing national culture.


	Bob McMullan

How important is a strong national culture at times of national crisis?

It is important in two ways. A long-term investment in culture is the bedrock of our unity, and in the immediate it is important because it's what helps us interpret extraordinary circumstances like those that happened in the United States recently. To make sense of them we need people interpreting them, and the Arts is one way that they are interpreted and presented to us as manageable stories.

I saw you the other week speaking at the National Press Club about the role of a government in bringing forward a community's compassion. Is the Arts part of that project?

It can be. They are an important part of how a nation speaks - it tells its own stories. How people speak to each other as members of the community. Of course, not all Arts takes a progressive or compassionate view, and there is some history of it playing a different role, but in the main, yes, it is part of that process of transition. We don't want to be complacent about it, but an intelligent government, trying to take a leadership role and take the thing out to what Abraham Lincoln called, I think, "the better angels of our nature", requires advocacy of all sorts and the Arts has a role to play in that.

Is the role of government say, to come up with a cultural blueprint and impose that through policy decisions, or is it 'let a 1000 flowers bloom'? Is it to pick winners, or is it to create the conditions of cultural activity?

At the Federal level, ever since Gough Whitlam, it has certainly been seen that it is not the job of Ministers for the Arts to decide to pick winners in the sense of saying, I think this person should get a grant and that person shouldn't. That leads to at least a form of censorship, and it is potentially very dangerous. And we don't want a cultural blueprint.

But it is not just about creating the circumstances. You should be actively involved in creating the basis on which bodies like the Australia Council, the Film Finance Corporation, can give support to individual artists on the basis of their assessment of their merit. I think that is a very healthy policy, and the problem in Australia at the moment is that the core funding body, the Australia Council, has been denied funding for its core activities, and that means they are not able to provide that support that will nourish new and continuing Arts practice and careers.

Is the so-called Americanisation of the Australian culture of concern to you?

I think we can't resist the globalisation. I mean, kids with baseball caps back-to-front who think Michael Jordan is the greatest sportsman in the world, that is just part of the global communications world in which we live, and there is no point in pretending it doesn't exist. But it does mean that you have to have specific interest in re-supporting and reinforcing the ability of Australians to tell our own stories. That is why the content rules on radio and television are important. That is why things like Arts funding are important. That way the stories can be told. Otherwise all we would see, particularly on television, would be other people's stories and the circumstances in the world interpreted through other people's eyes. That is a very unhealthy situation for a country to find itself in.

In terms of the Australian film industry - it is true we are getting a lot of Hollywood productions re-locating to Australia. What benefit does that bring to the local film industry? Is that something you would like to continue to support?

Yes, I welcome the fact that there is a lot of Hollywood production here. It creates a lot of jobs and does a lot in creating skills, and keeping that volume of work that enables people to develop a long-term career on the basis of which they can do new and creative things.

But it is not enough. We have to have an Australian film industry, not just an Australian production facility for the American film industry. We need both. The missing link is that at the moment, since the government has just filled in the funding hole they have dug over the last five years, with the new funding increase, is that there is no decent funding for the ABC to produce radio and television drama and documentaries. That is the gap that has to be filled.

In terms of contemporary music policy. I know that before the last election you came forward with an integrated policy. Are you planning something similar this time?

Yes we are. We actually had intended to do something about launching that. We are sort of halfway into planning it, and the incidents in the United States have made that sort of activity seem a bit inappropriate. It is a very sombre time and we don't want to be out there looking celebratory, so we have pulled back a bit from the announcement of it, and we have developed quite a comprehensive policy - pretty well the same as last time. Of course the parallel import situation has moved on a bit, and we can't haul that back as far as we would have in the past, but we will be dealing with parallel importation and helping in the way that I think the industry thinks will be pretty valuable.

We are looking at funding to assist our musicians - young rock musicians - bands to tour Australia - and trying to be a bit imaginative about helping people take their talent and turn it into a career, by selling Australian music to Australian audiences.

We have heard a lot about the upcoming free trade talks with the US. Are you concerned at any impact this might have on things like local content quotas?

I was amazed and alarmed when the Minister for Trade made it clear that local content quotas for TV and radio would be on the agenda for the free trade talks. Unlike what many people might read, I am actually a person who believes in free trade. I have been its advocate. But it does not require, and should not entail, us putting things like local content rules on the negotiating table. There is absolutely no need for that. Free trade rules don't require it. Logic doesn't support it. And we will get American material swamping Australian content, if we don't have the regulation that we have now.

I'll broaden it out a little bit. What are your views on the balance in government funding between your traditional high art - like theatre and opera - and more working class popular culture?

It is always a difficult balance, because of course, working class people want to go to the opera as well, and always have been. And there are young, working class kids who have got beautiful voices you want to turn into opera singers or ballet dancers, or whatever. And part of the policy is to make sure that wherever you live, whatever your background, you can develop your talent to its full. Whether you want to be a rock-and-roll singer or a ballet dancer. And that is important.

In recent years we have seen more of a skew towards the High Arts and the Arts that people from more affluent suburbs tend to enjoy. Now I welcome the support for that. I think that if that needs a bit of support, then our society should have it. But some of the other sorts of activities that take place, for example, in the outer suburban parts of our big cities, is languishing as a result of them not getting an equal amount of support and focus. So it is a very difficult balance. I don't want to score a cheap point because it is really hard to do. But all the focus on new activity has been fundamentally around the major theatre companies, etc. Now, they needed that support and I have welcomed them having it, but we need to look at how we provide a balance in that support.

I guess broadening that out a bit too - another tension between the idea of Art as a commercial industry for the people that are very, very good at it, and the idea that Art should be a part of everybody's everyday life - what role can government play in extending, I guess "Art" into the community?

Tony Blair has been actually looking at some very interesting ideas there, particularly about the role of the Arts in education. I don't mean by that, just training people to play the piano or something. I mean, research shows that you get better educational outcomes when kids are involved in Art, because it opens up their minds and you tend get better results.

And it opens up new career options for them, because you now have many important, creative industries in the Arts. Take the film industry. Everyone sees the glamorous jobs for Nicole Kidman and all those people, but when those films are being made there are jobs for the catering crew, there are electricians, there are carpenters, there are camera people - whole lots of technical and support jobs, that are flourishing in Sydney in particular, but also in Queensland and Victoria to a lesser extent - off that sort of production.

So you have got to look at the jobs. We have got to look at the cultural impact. And We have got to look at the pleasure ordinary Australians get from being able to participate in the Arts, or enjoy it. All of those things are what a government has to pay attention to.

Have you got a particular artistic forte yourself?

I'm no good at any of it. I don't have any talent. My enthusiasm really started from my love books. It is that which has led me to other art forms. I grew up in a working class household. There wasn't much access to music. I now enjoy music, but I don't have a deep understanding of it. I love literature and that has led me to enjoy drama and going to the theatre, and from there I have gone into other art forms. But I always come back to books first.

What is the single worst policy decision by the John Howard over the last two terms in the area of the Arts?

I think there has been one cumulative matter, which is the way they have allowed the Australia Council and the ABC to wither, because those are the two central dynamic forces in Australian public life, and Australians particularly see it through the ABC, and to a lesser extent it is not quite so obvious, but it is almost equally important, through the Australia Council.

Those two pillars of our cultural industry and our cultural identity have been allowed to wither. They haven't been chopped back in one instance, they have just been constricted and constrained over five years and they really do need our support if we are going to enjoy a successful and widely understood and appreciated cultural life.

Finally, as a senior member of the ALP front Bench, how hard is it to carry on as the political climate appears to spiral out of your control?

It has been a very hard few weeks, but all you can do is focus on the central issue - what I call the center of gravity issues - the ones that affect people's lives: jobs, health, education. Keep focusing on those and attention will shift back to those core issues. It is really hard at the moment, but it will change, and it is changing.

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Issue 113 contents

Interview: The Custodian
Labor's arts spokesman Bob McMullan on the role government can play in nurturing national culture.

Media: Chucking a Wobbly
Veronica Apap meets Dan Buhagiar, the programmer of Labor Council's new online initiative, Wobbly Radio.

E-Change: 3.3 Unleashing a Networked Culture
Politics does not occur in a vacuum - it's is as much a product of its culture as it is an influence on it. In the post-Industrial Age how will this relationship change?

Unions: Are You a Terrorist?
Away from the talkback noise, Mark Hearn reports on how a Sydney workforce is taking up the cause of racial understanding and tolerance.

Organising: STAA Performers
Film industry workers are acting collectively to ensure they don't become Mexicans with Mobiles.

Workplace: Making Art Work
The Workers Cultural Action Committee is a community cultural development provider. What is this? And what does it mean for the union movement?

History: Creative Alliances
Neale Towart wanders through the archives to look at how unions' have worked with artists to promote progressive casuses.

Performance: Tales from the Shop Floor
Peter Murphy profiles Sydney's New Theatre and the role it has played in fostering working culture.

Review: Homegroan
In an extract from her new book, The Money Shot, Jane Mills argues that the local film industry needs more than patriotism to get bums on seats.

Satire: PM Pleads To Nauru: Take Our Aborigines Too
In the wake of Nauru�s acceptance of the Tampa refugees, Australian Prime Minister John Howard has struck a new deal with the small island nation to take our Aborigines as well.

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