Christos Tsiolkas, Tim Winton and Charlotte Wood advocate to Save Our Arts ahead of federal election

Christos Tsiolkas was working as a veterinary nurse when he wrote "The Slap." He stated that he was unemployed at the time, and a friend who was a vet suggested he work there for a few months until he got back on his feet. This experience provided him with the space to write.

Prior to becoming a veterinary nurse, Tsiolkas also worked as a film archivist, removalist, administrator, and cleaner, all while continuing to write. He published three novels between 1995 and 2008, when "The Slap" was published. "The Slap" tells the story of a group of people at a barbecue whose lives are altered by a single slap. The book won numerous awards, became an international bestseller, and was adapted into an Australian TV series in 2011 and an American TV series in 2015.

It wasn't until the success of "The Slap" that Tsiolkas, nearly 50 years old and with a writing career spanning over two decades, was able to make a living from writing. “'The Slap' gave me and my partner a financial security that we had never had before,” he said. The difficulty artists face in making a living is one of the reasons Tsiolkas supports the “Save Our Arts” campaign, along with other supporters including playwright Suzie Miller, actor Rhys Muldoon, and authors Tim Winton and Charlotte Wood.

This campaign is not led by any arts organizations, but by a group of passionate organizers aiming to bring arts policy and funding issues to the forefront ahead of the upcoming federal election. It is a continuation of the "Fund the Arts" campaign before the 2022 federal election, which resulted in the government’s commitment to local content quotas for streaming platforms (which have not yet been implemented) and an additional $280 million in arts funding.

Dr. Ben Eltham, an academic and policy advisor for "Save Our Arts," stated that Australian arts and culture are at a “crossroads.” He pointed out that there are many trends currently working against Australian arts, culture, and content, with international tech giants and tech billionaires deciding what types of music, art, literature, and culture local audiences see and enjoy. He used music and streaming services like Spotify and Netflix as examples, noting they are not required to meet Australian content quotas like local broadcasters.

Eltham believes that the risk is that we could return to the pre-Whitlam era of the 1960s, where Australian culture was just an outpost, and all decisions were made by foreign companies in foreign capitals; Australian artists would have to leave Australia to develop their careers. “You’re already seeing a lot of Australian artists, particularly musicians, moving to places like Los Angeles because that’s where the industry is,” he said. This is in stark contrast to the early 2000s, which Eltham described as a boom time for Australian culture.

“It’s a real shame and it’s worrying,” he said. “There was a period there where you could almost say that Australian arts and culture was conquering the world. You saw those incredible actors going to Hollywood and having massive success. You saw Australian novelists winning the Booker Prize. You saw Australian music becoming popular all over the world. You saw Australian visual artists having an impact internationally.”

The “Save Our Arts” campaign hopes to revitalize the Australian cultural industry by establishing 200 creative scholarships for emerging artists, an additional $10 million for a literary translation fund, and a 10-year, $5 billion cultural infrastructure fund for Australian galleries, theaters, cultural centers, and libraries. The group plans to campaign in federal electorates during the election, using social media and community outreach, to pressure all political parties to adopt their proposed initiatives.

The campaign wants the government to legislate an Artificial Intelligence Act to protect the copyright and intellectual property of Australians, including a clear label that shows a work is “human-created.” “This is actually something that the government could pursue, and the government already does this with other types of certifications and labels, such as organic produce in the agricultural sector,” Eltham explained. “We were told that AI would do the drudge work and give us more leisure time. Instead, it seems to be stealing artists' jobs and making billionaires richer.”

The “Save Our Arts” campaign also advocates for a 20% Australian content quota for streaming platforms, with streaming platforms that fail to meet the quota being taxed, with the funds used to support arts and culture projects. In addition, Australian content on Spotify and Netflix would be marked with a “Koala Stamp.” Finally, the campaign also calls for production subsidies in the film sector to be extended to other art forms, particularly for new Australian works, and an insurance fund to be established for the music and performing arts industries.

“You can get a production subsidy for making a TV show or a film in Australia, but you can’t get any subsidy for putting on a festival,” Eltham said. “The music industry is facing huge insurance problems and rising costs. But their audiences are also declining, and one of the problems is that local audiences don’t want to go and see local shows. Why? Because they don’t know about them.” He stated that the decline in audiences is also linked to the ongoing cost of living crisis, with many Australians struggling to make ends meet.

“I think in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, the government should be stepping up and providing culture for free,” Eltham said. “That’s why public art, public culture, and public libraries are so important.” Tsiolkas said it is much harder for artists to make a living now than when he was starting out. “I feel like I’m from a lucky generation,” he said. “Housing, healthcare, and education are so much more expensive now.”

Tsiolkas benefited from government support early in his career. His publisher, Vintage Books, received a $2,718 publishing subsidy towards the production costs of his first novel, "Loaded" (1995). Eight years later, Tsiolkas received a “distinguished writer’s grant” from the Literature Board. “It was really important to have support, whether it was from a grant or an organization like the Victorian Writers’ Association. They took what I wanted to do seriously, and were able to help me with the practicalities, like paying the bills, the rent or mortgage, buying groceries,” he said.

“We need to get to a point where people aren’t worrying about how they’re going to pay for the groceries every day. Because if you’re doing that, you’re not going to be writing, you’re not going to be making films, you’re not going to be painting.” He believes the issue of artists’ survival is linked to class, and who gets to create art. “We need to take class seriously,” Tsiolkas said. “One of the hardest things to fight against is this idea that being an artist or writer is a very bourgeois thing; that it’s only certain people in society who can do it. That’s absolutely not true, but it’s harder to do if you come from a working-class background, or if you come from a community that has been historically ignored or underrepresented in the arts.”