By Erin Free
Like it or love it, Australia is obsessed with many things, and the arts isn’t one of them. That couldn’t have been made more clear when Prime Minister Scott Morrison – who has done reasonably solid and occasionally great work on the pandemic, but is quite possibly the greatest philistine to ever hold the top office – scuttled The Department of Communications And The Arts and folded it into The Department Of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications. That’s right, the arts sector was lumped in with roads and heavy mobile machinery. It was an appalling moment for Australia’s bright, vibrant entertainment industry (an industry that, like so many others in this nation, punches wildly and extravagantly above its weight), but hardly one that came as a surprise.
While ScoMo is seen regularly piling on the ordinary Aussie act while waving his scarf at Sharks matches and knocking up chicken coops in his backyard, the big guy is rarely, if ever, sighted at anything that could even be remotely described as cultural. He’s happier handing over $347,000 to an already cashed up, fake everyman tool like Scott Cam (“I need to provide for my family,” sneered the TV tradesman when questioned over the deal. “I get paid for what I do”) to ponce around as a National Careers Ambassador than he is making any sort of commitment to local artistic endeavour. And while ScoMo noisily announced a $250 million rescue package for the arts alongside a sucker-punched Guy Sebastian, only a minuscule fraction of that pledge has actually been spent. Again, it’s no real surprise. “I think it’s criminal the way the government has treated the arts,” Aussie legend Jimmy Barnes told The Guardian recently. “It’s actually shameful. I don’t think they realise how important music, art, literature, and film are to the wellbeing of people.”
During COVID-19, the arts have been constantly sidelined in favour of that other national form of entertainment: sport. While live music venues and cinemas around Australia remained closed during the national height of COVID-19, rugby league and AFL were allowed to rage on, admittedly with smaller, more socially distanced crowds, but with crowds none the less. With restrictions easing in Victoria, cinema and the arts have been shafted again, this time by a Labor government. The state’s movie houses have not even been included in The Victorian Government’s roadmap to reopening. While cafes, restaurants, shops and hairdressers are now back in action, and gyms (gyms???!!!) will be allowed to open their doors on November 8, cinema owners and operators have not been given a framework as to when they can charge up the projectors again. “To not allow us to reopen when we have the ability to do so safely, with COVID-Safe numbers and protocols in place, is just pernicious,” Palace Cinemas chief executive officer Benjamin Zeccola told The Sydney Morning Herald. “I am furious and depressed.”
In terms of COVID-19 safety, cinemas are one of the most easily controlled and maintained forms of entertainment in operation, as we stated in a previous opinion piece, which you can find here. Village Entertainment chief operating officer Gino Munari is also unhappy with The Victorian Government’s decision. “It’s beyond frustrating,” he told The Sydney Morning Herald. “The past few months have been very difficult for our staff, and the latest announcements have left many of us feeling very let down. The lack of clarity and consistent exclusion from re-opening decisions has placed unnecessary stress on the thousands of young Australian part-time and casual workers that cinema employs. We are dedicated to protecting the livelihood of all of all our staff.”
With movie houses safely open around Australia and no COVID-19 cases so far reportedly emanating from cinemas (but with plenty traced back to shops, restaurants and gyms), the decision by The Victorian Government to keep cinemas closed is an infuriating, but again, hardly surprising one. In all organisations, attitude slides down from the top and infuses the entirety. In Australia, we’re led – let’s be realistic, all politics aside – by a Prime Minister for whom the arts and entertainment industries are very, very low on his list of priorities, and that lack of interest and support filters down throughout the nation. While people will be able to sweat on each other at gyms in Victoria, the state’s cinemas will remain closed. It’s a travesty, but one we’re getting used to in this sport-obsessed, arts-ignoring nation.
If you liked this story, check out our other opinion pieces on the future of cinema and what’s happening in cinemas right now.
