New appointment: one of Tony Burke's first tasks will be to appease disability groups critical of the National Cultural Policy. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
The new Arts Minister, Tony Burke, moved quickly to reassure the arts community the National Cultural Policy, Creative Australia, will be implemented.
Burke, 43, was sworn in on Monday following Simon Crean's axing from the front bench.
His comments come at a crucial time as legislation moves through Parliament for the $235 million package, announced on March 13, which includes $75.3 million for the Australia Council.
But Burke's first job will be to respond to calls by disability advocates for an apology from the federal government following criticism that the national policy marginalises artists and audiences with disabilities.
Burke's appointment surprised many who were tipping Kate Lundy, the Minister for Sport, Multicultural Affairs and Minister Assisting for Industry and Innovation. Lundy, 45, had set up the government's ''digital cultural public sphere'', drawing digital arts and industry ideas together and feeding them into the National Cultural Policy in Crean's office. Lundy also held the shadow arts portfolio when Labor was in opposition.
Burke told Fairfax Media he wants to get the National Cultural Policy ''implemented from day one''. He said he has read the entire document and it is a ''great policy Simon Crean should be proud of''.
His priority over the next two days was to get across arts policy detail and ''meet as many people in the industry as possible''.
But arts will not be Burke's sole portfolio. He remains Minister for Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities.
The CEO of Arts Access Australia, Emma Bennison, said she had already written to Burke saying the disability community was ''very upset'' the national policy called for a ''culture of tolerance'' towards people with a disability.
''We're all out of tolerance - we want equality and recognition,'' she said, noting the references in the document to tolerance had been removed by the government last week.
While Arts Access Australia was ''supportive'' of the policy, it did not adequately address the needs of people with disabilities. Burke said he had read Ms Bennison's tweets on the issue ''and I had been unaware of the criticism until today''.
The executive director of the Australian Performing Arts Centres Association, Rick Heath, said Burke's statement he would support the National Cultural Policy ''is good news, but it remains to be seen how that's translated''.
The loss of Simon Crean and his ''trifecta'' of arts, regional and local government portfolios would be keenly felt, Heath said. However, one of Burke's other ministerial responsibilities, communities, was a ''good fit'' because ''greater engagement by communities with touring work around the country'' was required.
The Prime Minister announced Burke will be assisted by Michael Danby as his parliamentary secretary, ''whose lifelong commitment to the arts started when, as a teenager, he worked in his mother's art gallery'', Gillard announced.
Burke was born in Sydney and educated at St Patrick's College, Strathfield and the University of Sydney, where he graduated in arts and law. He joined the Labor Party at the age of 16 and became part of a new generation within NSW Labor's Right faction.
Burke said he plays guitar and piano, reads poetry every day - his favourite poets are T.S Eliot and Keats - and regularly attends Opera Australia, Bell Shakespeare, Sydney Theatre Company and Belvoir Theatre shows, as well as a ''modest amount'' of live music.
Before politics he set up a business with friends from his university debating team and training clients in advocacy and communication skills. They named the company Atticus after Atticus Finch, a central character in Harper Lee's novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
''The lesson we took from the character of Atticus was that if you want to know how somebody thinks, you need to get into his shoes,'' Burke said in 2006. ''So if you want to be persuasive you have to understand where the people who are listening to you are coming from.''
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