2022-23 Federal Budget: what's relevant to writers/illustrators?

12.04.22

At the end of March the Federal Budget 2022-23 was announced by Treasurer Josh Frydenberg. Was there anything in this Budget relevant to writers and illustrators? Our analysis shows there is little new and nothing targeted to report. 

Despite there being widespread acknowledgment that the arts have been severely impacted by the pandemic and continue to struggle to return to a ‘normal’, this Budget did not unveil a Government vision for the arts. Here’s a summary of the most relevant points:

1. A final additional $20 million of Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) funding was announced. This will close out the RISE program. 
2. The budget for lending rights (PLR/ELR) remains steady, currently at $23 million for 2022-23 and increasing by less than 2% each year to 2025-26. 
3. The budget for Australia Council remains steady, currently at $220 million and rising gradually, at less than 2% per year, to be $230 million in 2025-26. 
4. Concerningly, funding cuts to the National Library of Australia from $61 million in 2022-23 down to $47 million in 2023-24 where it stays for the subsequent two years.
5. Funding to ABC and SBS previously announced, with the ABC receiving $3.3 billion over the next 3 years. 
6. A commitment of $316.5 million to build Ngurra, a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultural precinct, in Canberra within the Parliamentary triangle (this commitment was announced back in January.)  

As significant as RISE has been for organisations impacted by the pandemic, it has not delivered grants to individual authors, the primary producers whose work fuels the whole book industry. Given the very low and insecure earnings of authors, we had hoped that the end of RISE would coincide with an increase in funding to the Australia Council to flow through to authors, particularly given that federal funding for literature through the Australia Council has fallen over the last decade, primarily due to no government-directed funding for reading promotion initiatives. Only $4.7 million was invested in literature through Australia Council’s grants and initiatives in 2020-2021, which is 6% of the grants budget.  

The ASA believes that the lack of funding for literature is linked to the lack of a national plan for literature: a coordinated agreement between federal and state governments that sets out the sector’s objectives and establishes a funding framework. In our view, we need a review of literature funding, and a national strategy. 

We also hoped that the budget for Lending Rights would be boosted to allow for the expansion of the schemes to include digital formats.  For years the ASA has called for a modernisation of lending rights legislation that would allow authors to be compensated for digital editions of their books held in libraries. Authors are already compensated for lost sales if their books are held in print format in public and educational libraries but the government must update the Australian lending rights schemes - which represent the most stable and significant government investment in authors - to include digital books.

In our Pre-Budget Submission to Treasury, we requested not only a general boost to literature funding but, specifically, increased investment in our authors by way of fellowships and grants, and a 20% increase to the annual lending rights budget to allow for digital books to be included in the PLR /ELR schemes and to allow for forecast growth in digital collections.  

The Federal election is imminent. As the major parties announce arts policies relevant to authors and illustrators, we’ll report on them via our newsletter.