Sunday, April 27, 2008
DISMAY DEEP
Phoney Ruddlemania has bitten the dust:
The unity and goodwill that radiated from Kevin Rudd’s 2020 Summit last weekend have evaporated, with some participants saying they cannot recognise the “big ideas” attributed to them while others claim they were “systematically silenced”.
Among the silenced is Melbourne theatre reviewer Alison Croggon:
I was at the Summit, in the Creative Stream. There was general and deep dismay about the report that was handed up on the supposed fruits of our labour. Quite a lot was lost or altered in translation. In fact, we came up with quite a lot of substantial suggestions for policy, and our aspirations were rather different to what was eventually posted.
Alison and her fellow Creatives remain determined “to advocate more effectively for what they do”, whatever that is:
Firstly, perhaps, to change that inevitable, snarky percpetion that artists have nothing to offer and are always asking for more money.
Those perceptions are so unfair. Who might have suggested them? Wherever might they have come from?
The funding threat to La Mama Theatre is a threat to Australian society as a whole, writes Alison Croggon.
Oh. Back to Alison’s initial comments, in which she vows to maintain a Peter Garrett vigil:
I think Garrett might be feeling a bit nervous at present. What he’s created here is a bunch of empowered people wanting to hold him accountable.
Maybe they’ll shout at him.
(Via AJ and Max the Cat)
UPDATE. Chris Berg:
Wasn’t it better during the Howard government, when we weren’t able to quantify how dim Australia’s best and brightest actually were? Or how few ideas they had?