Professor Lisa French, Dean of the School of Media and Communication (0407 682 341 or lisa.french@rmit.edu.au)
Topics: Film and TV, inclusion, disability, gender equality
“It is fantastic to have a strong vision – one we have not seen since Creative Nation.
“New legislation requiring streamers to platform Australian screen content – particularly in children’s television, drama and documentary – will increase jobs which have declined with the removal of content regulation in the past decade.
“More importantly, it will ensure our stories, language, character, humour and perspectives are part of the Australian media landscape.
“On the other hand, this new policy is silent on some important sectors, such as screenwriting – although we could see this called out as the policy progresses.
“Gender equality does not get any particular attention, except to acknowledge gender inequity. The Australian film and TV industry is not equal and equitable, and female participation and salaries remain well below that of men. Intersectional considerations are implied in the new policy, but not specifically called out.”
Professor Lisa French is internationally recognised for her scholarship and research on women in film and television. She has served on numerous industry boards, including the Australian Film Institute (AFI), The Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), and Screen Australia’s Gender Matters Taskforce.
Professor Mark Gibson, Associate Dean – Media, Writing and Publishing (0439 695 703 or Mark.Gibson2@rmit.edu.au)
Topics: Arts and culture policy, arts funding
"The policy represents a measured departure from the tendency over the last twenty years to talk about culture and the arts as an economic sector - the 'creative industries' - to be considered mostly in terms of employment and contributions to Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
“Policies of this kind are often immediately dismembered, headlined according to the total government spend – in this case $280 million – then broken down into an analysis of who in the sector has got what. But it is worth considering the policy in more holistic terms.
“The new national cultural policy suggests a ‘post creative industries’ approach – one that affirms non-economic values. It should be seen in the context of tentative moves by the government to distance itself from the neoliberal policy settings of the past twenty years.
“It will be interesting to see how much traction the Government is able to achieve with this perspective.”
Professor Mark Gibson’s research interests span the cultural and creative industries, fringe cultural production, suburban cultural expression and Australian popular culture.
Professor Anna Hickey-Moody, Professor of Media and Communications and Australian Research Council Future Fellow (0416 452 466 or anna.hickey-moody@rmit.edu.au)
Topics: Diversity in arts, digital practices, youth arts
“While the government is to be congratulated on assembling this genuinely valuable policy, they need to work on understanding the importance of digital practices in art in Australia.
“Analogue arts practices – like painting, sculpture, dance and music live performance – have traditionally been the focus of Australian arts policy. While the majority of arts practices are predominantly analogue, the role of digital cultural practices as both art forms and modes of learning, community building and distribution have become so substantial they can no longer be ignored.
“Young artists working in any medium are increasingly likely to bring specialist forms of digital literacy to both their practice and the way they distribute their work.
“Post-COVID, the creative industries have a substantially increased digital formal component and an even larger informal digital component (think TikTok, Instagram, Twitch).
“Young artists build and maintain audiences through digital practices, and we need both infrastructure and strategy that recognises this.”
Professor Hickey-Moody is based in the Digital Ethnography Research Centre where she leads the Creative Research Interventions in Methods and Practice (CRIMP) feminist research collective. She is known for her theoretical and empirical work with socially marginalised people.
