‘We don’t do that’: Why Creative Australia didn’t check artist’s past work

Creative Australia has officially terminated its contract with Australia’s dumped representative to the Venice Biennale, defying strident public calls for the artist’s reinstatement.

The peak arts agency also conceded publicly for the first time “a possibility” the Australian Pavilion in Venice – where selected artists present – would be left dark after the selection body’s about-face.

Khaled Sabsabi with one of the works in his survey exhibition, A Hope.Credit: James Brickwood

Khaled Sabsabi had his Venice contract officially cancelled just hours before the chief executive of the federal arts funding agency, Adrian Collette, fronted Senate estimates to account for the backflip that has outraged the nation’s arts sector.

Terms of compensation have yet to be settled.

Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino had been chosen to represent Australia at the prestigious festival in 2026.

But their invitation by the federal funding body Creative Australia was withdrawn six days after their appointment, following questions in parliament about Sabsabi’s previous artworks.

It was the discovery of an 18-second 2006 video artwork, Thank You Very Much featuring images of the 9/11 attacks on the United States that Collette told senators had prompted him to call an emergency meeting of the board that evening.

He concluded the work was likely to cause “the worst kind of public debate” and damage the reputation of Creative Australia and the credibility of the work it did.

“What happened at that moment was a recognition by me and the board that this entire process was going to be mired in the worst kind of divisive debate – the potential of this to damage the artist himself but the organisation that we are here to serve,” Collette said.

The agency had not done a search of the artist’s back catalogue before their appointment, Collette said: “We don’t do that. We judge the work in front of us and the potential to fulfil the brief that we are looking for.”

Creative Australia chair Robert Morgan, left, and Creative Australia CEO Adrian Collette during a Senate estimates hearing at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday night.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The statements are the first to be made by Collette, who appeared at the estimates session alongside board chairman Robert Morgan.

Under sustained questioning from Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young, both leaders said they saw no need to resign. Asked if he should apologise to the sacked artistic team, Collette said: “I want to talk to Michael and Khaled first.”

He said the decision had been “the toughest one in my quite long experience in the artistic sector”, and that Creative Australia strived always to have the artist’s back.

Morgan said the board had been shocked by the artwork and caught between “a rock and a hard place”.

But Hanson-Young said the actions of the board had opened the door for the agency to be consumed by the same kind of polarising political rancour experienced by the ABC.

She later said it was untenable for Collette and the board to remain, given the disclosures that it failed to take legal advice before Sabsabi’s sacking, and give the artist the right of reply.

“They failed to do due diligence, they’ve failed at good governance, and they’ve failed to look after the artists,” she said.

The fallout continued on Monday when Creative Australia announced it had postponed the 2025 Asia Pacific Arts Awards which  were to have been announced on March 3 at a ceremony at Arts Centre Melbourne.

The arts agency cited regard for the “wellbeing of all involved” as the reason for delaying the awards.

“While we regret any inconvenience this may cause, this decision has been made to support the wellbeing of all involved, as we feel it is important to take a pause during this time,” it wrote to the 30 finalists.

Fourteen Australian curators who have managed works in Venice also penned an open letter on Tuesday calling for the pair’s reinstatement.

“We are stunned that in these fraught times, the Creative Australia Board and CEO took no time to defend their decision against uninformed comments on Sabsabi’s early works by those who had not even seen them,” they said.

“Rather than fostering civil discussion of complex subjects, their reactive move has inflamed a polarised debate.”

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