The Federal Government has scrapped the peak advocacy body for publishers and writers in the latest of a string of cutbacks to the arts budget.
News of the demise of the Book Council of
Australia comes a year to the day former Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced
its formation.
And it follows the Turnbull
Government's support for the scrapping of parallel import rules which
publishers and writers warn will lead to a flood of cheap mass market books and
fewer Australian stories.
The Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, and
Arts Minister, Mitch Fifield, made no mention of the planned cuts at the
Prime Minister's Literary Awards on Monday night.
Fifield released a short statement
late on Tuesday afternoon about the Book Council, saying: "I will be
consulting widely with the literary community about alternative sector-led
mechanisms for representation and promotion.
"I thank those who had indicated
their willingness to serve on the Council, particularly Louise Adler AM, who
had agreed to be Chair, and the many people who have generously shared their
views on Australian writing and reading."
Sam Twyford-Moore, a former director of
the Emerging Writers' Festival, expressed dismay at the developments.
"For it to be buried in a budget
document and not owned by the government is distressing and offensive," he
said.
Twyford-Moore helped collect more
than 350 signatures protesting the Book Council's leadership and its
triennial funding of $6 million at the expense of the Australia
Council.
"The Book Council began as
ideological warfare on the Australia Council, but those moneys – in the right
hands – could have been used wisely as strategic investment in a fragile
sector.
"Now? Now a lot of magazines and
emerging organisations will very likely die – denied funding in the latest
round of Australia Council grants – everything within the world of Australian
letters is at risk."
Fairfax has been unable to contact Louise
Adler, chair of the Book Council, for comment.
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/art-and-design/book-council-of-australia-to-be-scrapped-as-525-million-cut-to-arts-revealed-in-myefo-20151215-glnwza.html#ixzz3uPsuRxo1
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