Note to ASPI: silence is not a winning strategy
Australia’s defence policy think tank is serving tax-payers poorly. It’s time for a strategic rethink, argues Ben Eltham.
Defence shopping list points to more overseas trips
This week saw a minor flare-up in Australian defence politics, with the release of a video of Australian troops misbehaving in Iraq. Apart from demonstrating yet again the power of user-generated media websites like...
ALP arts policy hits the right note but won’t rock the suburbs
It may be a dull read, but the ALP's new arts policy discussion paper is the most forward-looking arts policy to emerge from either side of politics since Paul Keating's 'Creative Nation', writes Ben...
How to Support Starving Artists
Ben Eltham calls for an urgent rebalancing of our cultural investment away from big organizations and towards the creative human capital of our sector. At present individual artists receive 6.3% of Australia Council grant...
These are dog days for artists in Australia. But will a new cultural policy help?
Following on from the David Throsby extract published in Policy last week, Ben Eltham writes that the type of art and culture we fund in Australia is largely an accident of history and fashion....