The Shorten Labor government has vowed to allocate funds for regional areas to improve Arts programs outside the major cities if successful this weekend at the Australian election.
As part of the Labor Party arts commitment, $5 million has been allocated for the refurbishment of the historic Her Majestry’s Theatre in Ballarat.
Regional areas are often overlooked when it comes to the Arts and Entertainment. It is an area Regional Touring’s Duane McDonald has been building on for the past 10 years with his successful Red Hot Summer tour.
The Shorten Labor Government will also provide an additional $1 million per year in regional arts funding to support ongoing artistic initiatives, invest in professional development opportunities and increase employment for regional and remote artists.
Further attention will be paid to embedding the arts in education. Labor’s plan is for fair funding for schools for every Australian child to have the very best education. Labor will deliver on a schools program for arts education in drama, dance, media arts, music and visual arts.
Music education will feature heavily in the Labor Arts policy with $6 million allocated to Music Hubs in the community for young people to play and learn music, $7.6 million for youth music programs and $2.5 million to support music industry skills and mentoring programs.
A further $600,000 has been allocated to expand the ARIA Music Teacher award into four categories – primary, secondary, community and remote teachers.
The Labor Arts Program, under Tony Burke MP, is designed to return Australia to the active Arts community that has suffered continuous cutbacks over the past six years under a Liberal government.
Australia goes to the polls this Saturday 18 May 2019. A Labor victory will be a win for the Arts community.
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