‘The Logies could happen anywhere’: Labor backs funding for local festival over TV awards

Investment in the multicultural festival Parramasala would trump support to bring the Logies to Sydney under Labor plans to send a far greater share of government and tourism dollars to western Sydney.

The region had been “sold down the river” in terms of cultural policy, the NSW opposition will tell a gathering of Sydney business and cultural leaders on Monday.

The exotic and colourful Parramasala festival should be supported over the Logies, Labor says. Credit: Edwina Pickles

“The two-and-a-half million people who call western Sydney home have for too long had to survive on scraps,” opposition spokesperson for arts, music and the nighttime economy John Graham will say in a speech, a copy of which has been obtained by the Herald.

At a big ideas event hosted by the Committee of Sydney at the University of Technology Sydney, opposition leader Chris Minns will commit Labor to a new focus on screen, music, fashion, art, architecture, design and technology.

“We will shift the focus away from a traditional arts policy towards the new and exciting opportunities emerging in the cultural and creative sectors,” he says. “We want to go beyond just funding the big cultural institutions in the city’s east.”

Their intervention three months before the March election opens a potentially new election battleground between the main parties around questions of cultural investment and equity.

Logies coming to Sydney? Not with our help, pledges Labor. Credit: Michael Rayner

“The Riverside Theatres is incomplete, the Roxy Theatre lies dormant and the Parramatta Female Factory remains an unpolished jewel of the state’s heritage and history,” Graham will say.

“Great institutions like the Casula Powerhouse are starved of funds and have to lay off staff. And what of the new Western Sydney airport at Bradfield? Where are the plans for theatres, live music halls, cinemas and libraries in this new 24-hour precinct?

“It would be a monumental tragedy if thousands of visitors fly into the new airport only to find the areas surrounding it bereft of new cultural infrastructure.”

The past decade in NSW has been marked by record capital spending in the arts, led by the Sydney Modern project, and unprecedented government support for the arts sector during COVID-19 lockdowns.

While Labor makes no specific funding announcements, its new arts policy would focus on the traditional arts sector, and valuing state-funded cultural institutions while embracing wider creative industries, Graham says.

Lying dormant: The Roxy Theatre in Parramatta.Credit: Jacky Ghossein

“The truth for creative people in NSW is it is not unusual to move between the cultural institutions, or the publicly funded arts sector, universities and broader creative sector jobs. This is a talented, mobile, innovative and enterprising sector.”

That required a discussion in government about investment rather than simply grant funding, he says, and required involvement of all departments.

Graham singled out the government’s tourism and marketing art, Destination NSW, for criticism. He questioned the agency’s involvement to bring the Logies to Sydney.

“Destination NSW needs to tell our state’s cultural story. Secondly, they need to change where they fund,” Graham says.

“A breakdown of Destination NSW events funding across the three cities of Sydney, once you took out Sydney Olympic Park, saw less than $1 million allocated to Western Parkland city, only $1.6 million to Central River city, and more than $65 million allocated to the Eastern Harbour City. That is not fair. That is not sustainable.”

In implementing that, Graham said Labor would support Parramasala over the Logies.

Parramasala was a joyful, grassroots expression of the best of Sydney’s diverse ethnic communities, based in the west. It was no longer funded by Destination NSW, Graham says.

“The Logies on the other hand could happen anywhere. It doesn’t claim an organic link to our creative community. I can’t see it bringing tourists to Sydney. It should stay on the Gold Coast.”

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