On Wednesday 8 February 2006 an audience of two hundred, including playwright David Williamson, NSW Upper House President Meredith Burgman and former NSW Premier Bob Carr, gathered at Wharf 2, Sydney Theatre Company, for the launch of Professor David Throsby's paper, "Does Australia Need A Cultural Policy?" The event was hosted by Currency House in association with the Sydney Theatre Company.

David Throsby, Australia's leading cultural economist, is Professor of Economics in the Division of Economic and Financial Studies at Macquarie University, and has written widely on cultural economics and being an artist including "Culture and Economics", and "Don't Give Up Your Day Job"; chaired three Prime Minister’s Working Groups on sustainable development and been an adviser to the World Bank, the OECD, FAO and UNESCO.

Throsby has called for a "sense of national conversation on the arts, and an invigoration of local grassroots arts groups and collectives." He said " I think we are at a time in our cultural development to kind of take stock of where we are going, and where we want to be."

He writes, " A cultural policy would be a powerful way of showing what we really value about being Australian and could well alleviate the fears at present dividing us." He further believes that even though the government seems to have written off discussion about cultural heritage as a "dead subject", the arts need to be considered in terms of their role as representing Australia. " Prime Minister Howard has declared that as a nation we're over all of that identity stuff...we know who we are."

In this paper Throsby traces public policy and patronage from 1818 through to Keating's "Creative Nation"' and the Howard Government's patronage by review. "Radical cultural change," Throsby argues, "has been brought about by deregulation, immigration, globalisation and the 'war on terror '."

The paper was launched by Cate Blanchett, Academy award-winning Australian actor who passionately called for more thought to be given to the arts. "No government that is concerned with our mental health, our growth and our future can ignore it..., " said Blanchett.

Professor Throsby said it was important that someone of Blanchett's fame supported the idea of a cultural policy. "She's strongly committed to the notion, not just of the arts itself, but the whole notion of Australian culture, identity, and what we do as a country to represent ourselves to ourselves" he said.

In Melbourne David Throsby will discuss his paper with Julian Burnside, QC, on Monday 27 February at 6pm for 6.30pm start, at Fortyfivedownstairs, 45 Flinders Lane.

Copies of Throsby's paper, in Platform Papers No. 7, January 2006, may be obtained from Currency House, a not-for-profit organisation which researches, debates and publishes on performing arts in public life.
Contact Eamon Flack at info@currencyhouse.org.au or (02) 9319 4953.

Contact: Skaidy Gulbis

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