‘Doesn’t pass the pub test’: Creative Australia approves 100 overseas trips in two years

3 months ago 20

Creative Australia has been accused of racking up an “excessive” overseas travel bill of $636,126, sending officials on more than 100 international trips since its restructure two years ago.

The federal opposition’s arts spokesman Julian Leeser said the government’s principal arts funding agency had sent officials abroad “on average once every eight days”, at a time when arts organisations were struggling to secure federal funding.

“Right now, families are cancelling trips, cutting back on groceries and watching every dollar,” Leeser said. “Yet under Labor, Creative Australia are sending officials overseas on average once every eight days. That tells you everything about this government’s priorities.”

Last month, Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette travelled business class for a four-night UNESCO conference in Barcelona, billed as the world’s biggest conference on cultural policy. Collette stayed at the Leonardo Royal Hotel at a total cost to taxpayers of $17,939 or almost $6000 a day. A four-day summit on arts and culture in South Korea saw three staff including Collette, fly business class and stay at a further cost of $26,651.

“With 119 full-time staff and 101 international trips in just over two years, Creative Australia is almost at the point where every staff member could have had an overseas trip. That doesn’t pass the pub test,” Lesser said.

But Collette told Senate estimates he had represented Australia on behalf of the minister at Barcelona and was a member of the international federation that staged the Seoul summit that brought together key leaders and decision-makers from around the world to chart the future on arts and cultural policy.

His presence at those forums would make a “difference to the sector” head of the review planned for Labor’s national cultural policy, Collette told parliament.

“We are in the position of advising on arts policy and that conference was looking at three or four really vital themes including artificial intelligence and various questions around the creation of cultural policy.”

The spending comes as the Australian Design Centre announced it will close next year after failing to secure federal funding and enough state funding in the latest grant rounds, short of the $350,000 it needs annually to keep its doors open.

In September, more than 100 artists accused the federal funding agency of acting like a “closed shop” after organisers of Sculpture by the Sea disclosed they came close to cancelling the famous coastal walk following a $200,000 budget shortfall. The event was rescued by private sponsor, NRMA.

The agency also came under intense scrutiny after announcing Sydney-based artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale, only for its board to sack him from the posting a week later.

Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino were later reinstated with an apology from Collette, following sustained protests from the arts sector. But the saga prompted a demand for answers as to how the decision overturning their appointment was reached in the first place. The federal opposition continues to question Sabsabi’s suitability.

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