The Greens have called for an urgent independent inquiry into Creative Australia\u2019s shock decision to revoke Australia\u2019s selection to the Venice Biennale, 6 days after awarding the commission to artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Micheal Dagostino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Citing the capitulation to political pressure, Greens spokesperson for the Arts, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called for a full and frank inquiry into the crisis that has now engulfed Australia\u2019s art world and put into question the integrity and independence of the Creative Australia Board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Senator has vowed to hold the agency and Minister to account at the upcoming Senate Estimates, scheduled for Tuesday 25 February, and believes a specific Senate hearing is warranted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Greens spokesperson for the Arts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s an appalling capitulation that has plunged arts policy in Australia into crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt has undermined the entire integrity and credibility of the newly formed Creative Australia. Succumbing to political pressure from the Murdoch media and conservative politicians has brought the nation\u2019s premium cultural institution into disrepute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cArtistic expression must be free from political interference and intimidation. To allow this censorship of artistic thought and expression is to allow an attack on the very values of freedom and peace that are the lifeblood of our democracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo award the submission to two of Australia\u2019s great creative minds, only to revoke it 6 days later after political interference sets a dangerous precedent, not just in the art world but for all of our public institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is nothing short of an international arts embarrassment for Australia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere must be a full and frank inquiry into how this decision was made, who was involved and how much it has cost the Australian taxpayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat role did the Minister for the Arts, or any other members of government have in this cancel-culture calamity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe cancellation of the commission must be reversed, and the original contract with Mr Sabsabi and Mr Dagostino must be upheld.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cSenate Estimates can\u2019t come soon enough. The agency has failed to stand with the arts community and the public deserves to know the full story.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Greens have called for an urgent independent inquiry into Creative Australia\u2019s shock decision to revoke Australia\u2019s selection to the Venice Biennale, 6 days after awarding the commission to artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Micheal Dagostino. Citing the capitulation to political pressure, Greens spokesperson for the Arts, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called for a full … Continue reading “Urgent inquiry needed into political interference at Creative Australia”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31403"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31404,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31403\/revisions\/31404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}