City of Yarra withdraws job ad for $72k ‘climate emergency’ artist

The City of Yarra advertised for a “climate emergency artist”, with the $72k salary paid by Victorian taxpayers. But the ad has suddenly been taken down.

City of Yarra is hiring a climate artist. Picture: ThinkStock.

A Greens-dominated inner city council has abruptly withdrawn an ad seeking applications for a “climate emergency artist”.

The City of Yarra, which includes Collingwood and Fitzroy, was set to pay $72,854 plus super a year for an artist with “a significant body of work” to be creative around the “climate emergency” issue.

The cash for the six-month gig would have come from state taxpayers through the Andrews Government’s Working for Victoria program.

A job ad said the six-month contract involved working “with a number of departments across council and with community stakeholders to develop a creative response to the climate emergency”.

“(And) contribute to the design and delivery of engagement, behaviour change, and mobilisation campaigns related to climate emergency, to increase long-term buy-in and action across the municipality,” the ad said.

But following the Sunday Herald Sun story revealing the job, the ad has been withdrawn.

“Council is reviewing the job ad to ensure this role is best placed to meet the needs of the Yarra small business community,”.a council spokeswoman said.

Yarra is among several Victorian councils, including Melbourne, Moreland and Port Phillip, which have made the largely symbolic climate emergency declarations.

Yarra even has a climate emergency plan which urges ratepayers and residents to drive less, and for the council to reduce carparking spaces and introduce more car-free zones.

Ratepayers’ Victoria president Dean Hurlston slammed Yarra for creating the climate emergency artist job amid the pandemic.

“At a time when council needs to show leadership and dig deep to support business and household budgets recover, we have a virtue-signalling agenda ignoring reality,” he said.

“They say timing is everything, and this job ad is reminiscent of a Monty Python skit.”

A council spokeswoman said the purpose of the temporary program was to employ local artists “who have borne the brunt of COVID-19 the hardest”.

“Public art is important to Yarra’s food, dining and retail precincts, and having a dedicated role to assist in the rejuvenation of these precincts will go some way to the economic recovery for our small businesses,” she said.

A government spokesman said that Working for Victoria had helped more than 12,000 people back into work since it began last April, assisting people across all sectors.

“Several of the 72 councils that have won funding under Working for Victoria have provided jobs to artists in programs designed to provide a community benefit,” he said.