CULTURAL FUNDING BY GOVERNMENT
CULTURAL FUNDING: THE NUMBERS ARE IN AND THE DOLLARS ARE UP
The results of the 2008-09 Cultural Funding survey are in and the news is good. The combined three levels of government cultural funding was up 7.8% on 2007-08 to $6,772.5m. The states provided the most funding with $3,033.7m or 45% of total funding. This was followed by the Australian Government with $2,584.5m (38%). The remaining 17% came from local government with a total of $1,154.2m. This is a great result considering the state of the world economy.
Environmental heritage attracted the most funding with almost one third of all Australian and state and territory funds. These two levels of government allocated $1,604.0m or 29% of their total cultural funding to this category. Radio and television services attracted $1,392.8m, a further 25% of Australian and state and territory funding.
Local government have traditionally been major funders of local libraries and 2008-09 was no different. In that year, local government funded libraries to the tune of $727.5m or 63% of their total funding. Similar percentages apply to all states except Tasmania and the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory where libraries receive most or all of their funding from state or territory governments.
While it is nice to see healthy figures being directed to cultural funding, a more tangible way of considering the funding is on a per person basis. In 2008-09, Australian government cultural funding equated to $118.98 per person and state and territory funding totalled $139.66 per person. Local government funding was $53.13 per person. This equates to an Australian cultural funding total of $311.77 per person.
You can get more information about cultural funding in Australia from the publication Cultural Funding in Australia, 2008-09 (cat. no. 4183.0).
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