Arts Minister Tony Burke handpicks panel to guide on cultural policy

Oscar-winning producer Emile Sherman, singer Jaguar Jonze and theatre director Wesley Enoch join the 15-member group to help design the Albanese government’s cultural roadmap.

Film producer Emile Sherman. Picture: John Feder

Oscar-winning producer Emile Sherman, singer-songwriter Jaguar Jonze and theatre and festival director Wesley Enoch have been handpicked by federal Arts Minister Tony Burke to join a 15-­member panel that will guide the government on the formation of a national cultural policy.

Other members, including Karen Quinlan, director of the Nat­ional Portrait Gallery, mural artist Fintan Magee and opera singer and composer Deborah Cheetham, will meet for the first time on Tuesday as the government holds public meetings across the country about the cultural blueprint.

The 15 panellists have been selected to give advice on five policy areas, being First Nations arts, cultural diversity, the role of artists as workers and culture-makers, strong institutions and audiences.

Mr Burke has given himself a deadline at the end of the year to release the cultural policy, which he intends to guide government priorities for the arts and cultural sector, and where the arts intersects with other policy areas such as health, education and cultural diplomacy.

Enoch, who sits on the First Nat­ions panel with theatre director Rachael Maza and author Claire Coleman, said the policy discussions were an opportunity to put forward ideas about how to raise the profile of Indigenous arts here and overseas.

Speaking from the Garma festival of Yolngu culture in northeast Arnhem Land, Enoch said Indigenous artists had a role to play in the “conversation with the ­nation”, including on the Indigenous voice to parliament.

“I think we are where we are now because of a whole range of factors, one of them being our story­telling that has come forward in film and television, in theatre and art and music,” said Enoch, a Quandamooka man.

Also on the panel are Caroline Bowditch, artistic director of Arts Access Victoria, filmmaker Khoa Do, MEAA policy director Matthew Chesher, music producer Michael Hohnen, Sydney Fringe Festival director Kerri Glasscock, NAISDA dance college chief executive Kim Walker and arts producer Kate Ben-Tovim.

Glasscock, who sits on the panel to assess ideas about cultural institutions, said she was looking forward to the debate. “There is a role for major institutions to play in supporting all parts of the sector,” she said. “I’m really hopeful that there will be submissions that look at that and what the opportunities are for institutions to play a bigger role, or a different role.”

Labor has previously produced cultural policies under the Keating and Gillard governments. The new policy will build on the foundations of the last document, Creative Australia, which was launched in 2013 and abandoned when Labor lost office later that year.

Mr Burke and Special Envoy for the Arts Susan Templeman are hosting meetings around the country, and public submissions are open until August 22.

Mr Burke said the cultural blueprint should “draw on as many voices as possible”.

“The arts, entertainment and cultural sector is important to who we are as Australians and plays a vital role in the economy,” he said.

The appointment of the new panel coincides with the end of the Creative Economy Taskforce convened by former Coalition arts minister Paul Fletcher.