1
PER
CAPIT
SUBMISSION TO SENATE STANDING COMMITTEES ON
ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS’ INQUIRY INTO THE
NATIONAL CULTURAL POLICY
Per Capita
March 2023
‘I regard the theatre as the greatest of all art-forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can
share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being.’
1
- Thornton Wilder, 1957
Per Capita welcomes the opportunity to provide this submission to the Senate Standing Committees on
Environment and Communications, for their inquiry into the National Cultural Policy (the Policy).
Per Capita is an independent public policy think tank, focused on building a new vision for Australia. One that
promotes shared prosperity, social justice, and fairness.
Access to, and participation in cultural events is a social justice issue, for creative industry workers, and for
the public. Australians living outside of capital cities, with lower levels of education, and lower household
incomes attend cultural activities at a lower rate than their counterparts. Socioeconomic factors inhibit access
to the arts, and thus, to the coinciding benefits the arts can provide to health, social cohesion, and community
building.
2
This is recognised in one of the Policy’s ten guiding principles: that ‘[a]ll Australians, regardless of
language, literacy, geography, age, or education, have the opportunity to access and participate in arts and
culture’.
3
Per Capita has considered the Policy and is broadly supportive of its aims. The Policy clearly acknowledges
the importance of the arts in Australia, and the essential role it plays in our sense of belonging and identity.
The Policy seeks to restore funding to industries, horribly neglected by former governments, and pave the way
for a much-needed restoration of our creative ecosystem.
However, Per Capita submits that within the actions enumerated in the Policy, a stronger focus on audience
access to live performance should be considered, to promote further access for all Australian to participate in
arts and culture, regardless of socioeconomic status.
This submission will focus primarily on live theatre in Australia’s desperately under-subsidised, publicly
subsidised theatres, with emphasis on the fifth of the Policy’s interconnected pillars: Engaging the Audience –
making sure our stories connect with people at home and abroad.
4
Why live theatre?
Theatre is unique to other artforms, incorporating multiple disciplines into one. It is deeply intimate and
unique in its nowness. As the fourth wall crashes down, audience and players are locked in a shared
experience; where no two performances are ever the same.
Writing for the International Federation of Actors (FIA), Michael Crosby, Australian trade unionist and
former general secretary of FIA, considered the important role of Actors as the storytellers of our society:
1
Richard Goldstone, ‘The Art of Fiction XVI: Interview with Thornton Wilder’ [1957] (15) The Paris Review 36, 47
2
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events, Australia (Catalogue No 4114.0, 26 March 2019) Table 2,6-7.
3
Commonwealth of Australia, Revive a place for every story, a story for every place – Australia’s cultural policy for the next five years (Policy
Document, January 2023) 19.
4
Ibid 18.
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they are essential to the intellectual and emotional health of a society. They are the face and voice of
a nation’s culture. They tell a nation their own stories. They reflect what it is to be a citizen of that
nation. They hold a mirror to society so that it can see its true nature. They embody the intellectual
and emotional struggles going on in each of our societies.
5
But who is being reflected in this mirror? And who can view this reflection?
The economic and non-economic benefits of the Australian creative industries were well investigated by the
2021 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communication and the Arts inquiry into Australia's
Creative and Cultural Industries and Institutions.
6
However, without access to the stages where our stories are
told, many Australians miss out on these benefits.
Who is being reflected?
Diversity is front and centre in this report, and whilst language, literacy, geography, age, or education all
contribute to socioeconomic disadvantage in our community, more emphasis should be placed on
investigating and correcting barriers to access so that everyone can experience the social benefits (individual
and societal) of viewing live theatre.
Benefits of theatre
The economic and non-economic benefits of the Australian creative industries were well investigated by the
2021 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communication and the Arts inquiry into Australia's
Creative and Cultural Industries and Institutions.
7
However, without access to the stages where our stories are
told, many Australians miss out on these benefits.
Research published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, in 2021, found that attending theatre
improves empathy, changes attitudes, and leads to pro-social behaviour.
8
In the first part of this study,
researchers examined the effects on audiences of the play Skeleton Crew, by Dominque Morisseau, a play
about the impacts on Detroit’s auto workers following the 2008 financial crisis. It was a production which ‘put
onstage people of a race and class and type that much mainstream theatre might ignore or demonise’.
9
Results
from the study showed that surveyed audience members reported:
feeling more empathy towards factory workers in Detroit… [s]pecifically, they reported feeling more
empathic concern for factory workers… were more likely to think that racial discrimination is a major
issue; that the government should reduce income disparities; and were more supportive of corporate
regulation.
10
What we put on our stages is important. It plays a crucial role in how we understand our wider community.
The Australian stage
Australia’s first international export of live spoken word theatre was Ray Lawler’s 1955 play Summer of the
Seventeenth Doll. This production dealt heavily with class, gender, race, and the Australian national identity.
However, political theatre that deals with class issues is minimal in Australia. Even with reduced funding to
the sector, the number of new and existing Australian spoken theatre texts performed professionally on
Australian stages has increased, but the number of those productions which deals with class issues has
decreased. This is presented in Figure 1.
5
Michael Crosby, ‘Reflections on the Challenge of Organising Actors’(FIA Document, International Federation of Actors, August 2020) 3 <https://fia-
actors.com/fileadmin/user_upload/News/Documents/2021/January/FIA_Organising_Actors.pdf>.
6
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts, Parliament of Australia, Sculpting a National Cultural Plan -
Igniting a Post-COVID Economy for the Arts (Report, October 2021).
7
House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications and the Arts, Parliament of Australia, Sculpting a National Cultural Plan -
Igniting a Post-COVID Economy for the Arts (Report, October 2021).
8
Steve Rathje, Leor Hackel and Jamil Zaki, ‘Attending Live Theatre Improves Empathy, Changes Attitudes, and Leads to Pro-social Behaviour’ (2021)
95 (January) Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.
9
Ibid 2.
10
Ibid 3.
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Figure 1
11
The
percentage
of
professional Australian plays staged in Australian
is
growing, but
less
are dealing with
the
subject matter of Class Issues
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
- %
of
Australian theatre
• • •
Linear(%
of
Australian theatre)
- %
of
Australian theatre dealing with class issues
• • • Linear (%
of
Australian theatre dealing with class issues)
Our analysis of state theatre companies
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
Pe
r
Ca
pita
re
searc
hed
four
of
Australia's state theat
re
compan
i
es
in four different states
to
analyse
some
of
the
trends in
ne
w
and
existi
ng
Australian
works
on publicly
subs
idised
stages.
12
Fig
ure
s
2-4
s
how
the
types
of
works
perfo1med in
our
se
lection of state theatre companies. Whilst the
percentage of
ne
w and
ex
i
st
ing Australia texts
perfo1med
in each companies'
su
b
sc
1ip
tion/ mainstage season
is
incre
as
ing, t
he
se
productions are
mo
re likely
to
h
ave
smaller casts, and
be
perfo1med in
sma
ller
ve
nue
s.
This
pa1t
ly could
be
related
to
rutist choice, but
more
likely, theatre companies
ru·e
constricted in what they
want
to
do
, by what they h
ave
the
means
to
produce.
Mea
ns, which
we
su
bmi
t sh
ou
ld
be
provi
ded
by
government.
11
Author's
own
calculations
on
figures taken from
Au
sStage database:
'The
Australian Live Performance Database' AusStage (Web Database,
20
23)
<htt.ps://
www
.ausstage.eclu.au/pages/browse
/>
.
12
Selected from companies
in
the Confederation
of
Australian State Theatres (Bell Shakespeare, Belvoir, Black
Swan
State Theatre Company, Circus
Oz
, Malthouse Theatre, Melbourne Theatre Company, Queensland Theatre Company, State Theatre Company
of
South Australia, Sydney Theatre
Company.
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Submission 13
Fip;me
2
13
The percentage
of
new and existing Australian works is increasing
on
om
publically
susidised stages
General
GJi'mi
GJi'mi
GJi'mi
GJi'mi
GJi'mi
GJi'mi
GJi'mi
GJi'mi
%
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
I
0
~◊
~◊
~
'\,v '\,v
~
<;),'>
<;i'""
<;i'"
<;)~
"\) "\) "\) "\)
- %
of
non
-Australian works - %
of
all
Australian works
- %
of
new Australian works
Fip;me
3
14
The average cast size for new Australian works is typically smaller than non-
Australian works
I II I I I I
~'
~
<;)◊
"\)
0
~
~
"\,<:,
~"'
~
~""
"\,<:,
~
~
~'l,
<;)~
~
"\)
■ Average
cast
size
in
non
-Australian works
■
Average cast size
in
Australian works
Fip;me
4
15
More new Australian works are performed
in
each
company's smallest main venue for productions
in
their
subscription/mainstage season
Less new Australian works are performed
in
each
company's largest
main
venue for productions
in
their
subscription/mainstage season
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
General %
I ■
I.
Company A Company B Company C Company D
■
%
of
new Australian works 2011-2019
■
%
of
non-Australian works 2011-2019
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
I I
Company A Company B Company C Company D
■
%
of
new Australian works 2011-2019
■
%
of
non-Australian works 2011-2019
13
Author's
own
calculations
on
figures taken from annual reports from 2010-2021
of
Me
lbourne Theatre Company (Vic), Black
Swan
State Theatre
Company
(YI
A)
, Queensland Theatre Company (Qld),
and
State Theatre Company
of
South Australia (SA) and AusStage database:
The
Australian
Li
ve
Performance Database' AusStage (Y,eb Database, 2023)
<h
t
t.ps:
//
www
.ausstage.edu.au/pages/brows
e/>
.
14
Ib
id.
l S
Ib
id.
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Submission 13
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Who gets to view the reflection?
As early as 1856, Australian workers were rallying for the right to recreation. At the first Eight-hour day
procession in Melbourne, workers led the procession carrying a banner which read Eight hours labour, eight
hours recreation, eight hours rest.
16
Since its inception, the Australian labour movement has understood that to advance the interests of the
working class, unions needed to be involved in all activities that encompassed the of lives members and their
families, not merely their mainstay struggle for better wages and conditions.
17
In 1977, in its first resolution on the subject, the Congress of the Australian Council of Trade Unions declared
‘that there is an urgent need for the trade unions to become more involved in the arts and cultural life of the
Australian people’.
18
Why? Because as their 1991 Cultural Policy elucidates:
Successful democracies need four common qualities: productive and inventive economies; highly
skilled and well-educated work forces; highly developed social security systems and high levels of
cultural involvement. Cultural involvement is a critical and supportive element to the other three
qualities.
19
Bovell, Cornelius, Reeves, Tsiolkas and Vela’s Who’s Afraid of the Working Class, is play that puts the
struggles of the working-class front and centre. This production forced the audience to consider pressing
issues of everyday Australians, powerless in the face of growing inequality. As Melbourne theatre reviewer,
Kate Herbert wrote at the time: it was a story about the ‘disenfranchised underclass created by insensitive
government policies and a shrinking job market’.
20
In the introduction of the 2017 reprint of the play, director Julian Meyrick muses on the development, and
importance, of this Melbourne Workers theatre production, first performed at Victorian Trades Hall on 1 May
1998:
The choice of the aesthetic entailed considerable risk. It meant breaking with the upbeat,
celebrational mood of so much Australian community theatre, a style with which the commissioning
company, the Melbourne Workers Theatre, was partially identified. There was always the fear of
being negative, regressive even, painting things as worse than they were. But how could they be any
worse than what we saw, daily, around us? As rehearsals for the first season got underway it was
easy to research the characters in the play. All you had to do was walk down the street.
21
The first mount of Who’s Afraid received highly enthusiastic reviews and attracted large audiences.
22
With
tickets at $8-$15
23
the cost to attend made up just 1.5% of the average weekly wage at the time.
24
Jumping
forward to 2020, the average ticket price for all theatre in Australia is $105.14,
25
almost 6% of the 2020
weekly average wage.
26
Live Performance Australia’s trends analysis shows a 82% growth in average ticket
16
Peter Love 'Report: Melbourne Celebrates the 150
th
Anniversary of its Eight Hour Day' (2006) 91 (November) Labour History 193, 193.
17
Sandy Kirby, Artists and Unions A Critical Tradition A Report on the Art & Working Life Program (Australia Council, 1992) 8. Redfern, 1992
page 8
18
Richard Walsham, ‘Have a Cultural Bent’ (1978) 59(4) Journal of the New South Wales Public Schools Teachers Federation 75, 75.
19
Australian Council of Trade Unions, ‘Cultural Policy’ (Congress Policy Document, September 1991) (emphasis added)
<https://www.actu.org.au/media/349680/actucongress1991_cultural_policy.pdf>.
20
Kate Herbert, ‘Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?’ Kate Herbert Theatre Reviews (Blog, 1 May 1998)
<https://kateherberttheatrereviews.blogspot.com/1998/05/whos-afraid-of-working-class-may-1-1998.html>.
21
Andrew Bovell et al, Who’s Afraid of the Working Class?, ed Julian Meyrick (Currency Press, 2
nd
ed, 2017) vi.
22
Glenn D'Cruz, ‘Class’ and Political Theatre: The Case of Melbourne Workers Theatre’ (2005) 21(3) New Theatre Quarterly 207, 209.
23
Bronwen Beechey, ‘When the class is no longer working’ (1998) May (317) Green Left (Online) <https://www.greenleft.org.au/content/when-class-
no-longer-working>.
24
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earning, Australia (Catalogue No 6302.0, 13 August 1998).
25
Live Performance Australia, Live Performance Industry in Australia: 2019 and 2020 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Report (Report, 7 October
2021) 91.
26
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Average Weekly Earning, Australia (Catalogue No 6302.0, 13 August 2020).
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prices, from an average of $43.87 in 2004 to $105.14 in 2020.
27
In our analysis of state theatre companies, we
found ticket prices had increased for concession and full fare from 19-24% from just 2015 to 2023.
28
Who’s afraid of the working class today? No-one. They can’t get through the door.
Barriers to access
According to statistics from the ABS, the attendance rate for theatre performances is lower for people with
lower household incomes, lower educational attainment, and for people living outside of capital cities. Whilst
attendance rate has reduced across the board, it has reduced considerably more for those in lower
socioeconomic categories. This is show in Table 1.
27
Live Performance Australia, Live Performance Industry in Australia: 2019 and 2020 Ticket Attendance and Revenue Report (Report, 7 October
2021) 91.
28
Author’s own calculations on figures taken from webpages and season brochures from 2010-2021 of selected theatre companies: Melbourne Theatre
Company (Vic), Black Swan State Theatre Company (WA), Queensland Theatre Company (Qld), and State Theatre Company of South Australia (SA).
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Table 1
29
Equivalised gross household
income
Highest educational
attainment
Region
Year
Lowest quintile
Highest
quintile
Postgraduate
degree
Year 12
Capital
cities
Balance of
state/territory
2005-6
11.6 %
25.4 %
29.2 %
16.9 %
17.9 %
15.5 %
2009-10
10.1 %
26.6 %
231.8 %
14.0 %
17.6 %
14.1 %
2017-18
9.4 %
25.6 %
29.0 %
13.2 %
17.6 %
14.2 %
Difference in
attendance rate 2005-
6 to 2017-18
2.2 %
-0.2 %
0.2 %
3.7 %
0.3 %
1.3 %
State theatre companies are doing more with less
Throughout rolling cuts to our cultural institutions, publicly subsidised theatre companies have been
innovating and adjusting to ensure Australian stories remain on our stages. But the lack of funding is forcing
them to rely more heavily on other revenue.
Figures 5-7, highlight the financial stress placed on these companies. Figure 5 looks at Australia Council base
funding as a percentage of total yearly revenue, Figure 6 looks at all Commonwealth, State and Local
Government funding as a percentage of total yearly revenue; and Figure 7 looks at a consolidation of four
companies’ Australia Council base funding adjusted by CPI.
With such little funding, it’s difficult to describe them as public, state or subsidised theatre companies at all.
29
Author’s own calculation from figures taken from ABS, 2013-14 missing relevant figures: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Attendance at Selected
Cultural Venues and Events, Australia, 2017-18 (Catalogue No 4114.0, 26 March 2019) Table 2,6-7; Australian Bureau of Statistics, Attendance at
Selected Cultural Venues and Events, Australia, 2009-10 (Catalogue No 4114.0, 21 December 2010) Table 2,7-8; Australian Bureau of Statistics,
Attendance at Selected Cultural Venues and Events, Australia, 2005-06 (Catalogue No 4114.0, 25 January 2007) Table 2,8-9.
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100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Company A
■
Australia Council b
ase
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■
Other revenue
CompanyC
20
10 2011 2012 2013
20
14
20
15 2016 2017 2018
20
19 2020 2021
■
Australia Council b
ase
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■
Other revenue
Fip;me
5
30
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
CompanyB
■
Australia Council b
ase
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■
Other revenue
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
General%
CompanyD
■
Australia Council b
ase
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■
Other revenue
30
Author's
own
calculations
on
figures taken from annual reports
and
financial reports from
20
10-2021
of
selected theatre companies: Melbourne
Theatre Company (Vic), Black
Swan
State Theatre Company
(WA
), Queensland Theatre Company (Qld), and State Theatre Company
of
South
Australia (SA). Data missing from Company D.
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Submission 13
Company A
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
I I
0%
• • • • • I
■ Total
Commonwea
lth funding as % of total yearly revenue
■ Total State &
Local
Government
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■ Other revenue
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
■
I I I
CompanyC
■
I
■
■ ■
I
■ Total
Commonwea
lth funding as % of total yearly revenue
■ Total State &
Local
Government
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■ Other revenue
Fip;me
6
31
CompanyB
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
I • • • • • • • • • I I
■ Total
Commonwea
l
th
funding as % of
tota
l yearly revenue
■ Total State &
Local
Government
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■ Other revenue
100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
•
■
I
CompanyD
I I I I I
■ Total
Commonwea
l
th
funding as % of
tota
l yearly revenue
■ Total State &
Local
Government
funding as %
of
total yearly revenue
■ Other revenue
Fip;me
7
32
Australia Council b
ase
fund
ing
for
4 state theatre companies
(co
n
so
lidated)
5,100,000
5,050,000
5,000,000
4,950,000
4,900,000
4,850,000
4,800,000
4,750,000
Recommendations
and adjusted for inflation
Within the Policy
we
beli
eve
th
ere
is
space
fo
r fmther
deve
lopment
to
improve
audie
n
ce
access and promote
Australi
an
content in Australia's state theatre
compa
n
ies.
The
COVI
D-
19
pandemic,
alo
ng with bringing our
31
Ibid
.
32
Ibid
; adjusted for inflation using
CPI
(2010 = 100).
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creative industries to a jarring halt, intensified divisions in our community. We believe the creative industries
can play a role in repairing these fault lines.
Our analysis shows that state theatre companies will do what they can to get Australian content on our public
stages. We are therefore not recommending content requirements, like that needed in other arts disciplines.
We applaud the return of funding to the Australia Council but make recommendations about additional
funding to ensure that Australian stories on our public stages can be seen by a wider section of our
community.
1. Introduce additional or conditional funding for state theatre companies for subsidising tickets to
encourage attendance from lower income Australians.
2. Undertake further research into the demographics of audiences with a particular focus on the
demographics of theatre attendees at free or discounted productions at state theatre companies.
Conclusion
The Policy outlines ‘a place for every story, a story for every place’. Per Capita submits that it should
maintain a focus on a third tenet: a place for every Australian.
We acknowledge the decades of campaigning by creative industry workers, and the Australian public, who
have fought for a restoration of our creative industries and demanded it be on the government’s agenda.
We acknowledge the Albanese Labor Government, who has listened and acted in developing this Policy,
along with all the contributors from across Australia’s creative industries.
We thank the members of the Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications for their
consideration of this submission.
Publicly subsidised theatre companies should be subsidised for the benefit of the entire public. If not, we risk
publicly funded arts being only accessible to the privileged elite and lose the benefits of social cohesion that
come with our stages showcasing stories about our diversity: race, gender, sexuality, and class.
This is how we democratise the arts in our country. This is how we create a true class act.
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