‘Doesn’t pass the pub test’: Creative Australia approves 100 overseas trips in two years

Creative Australia has been accused of racking up an “excessive” overseas travel bill of $636,126, sending officials on more than 100 international trips since its restructure two years ago.

The federal opposition’s arts spokesman Julian Leeser said the government’s principal arts funding agency had sent officials abroad “on average once every eight days”, at a time when arts organisations were struggling to secure federal funding.

“Right now, families are cancelling trips, cutting back on groceries and watching every dollar,” Leeser said. “Yet under Labor, Creative Australia are sending officials overseas on average once every eight days. That tells you everything about this government’s priorities.”

Last month, Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette travelled business class for a four-night UNESCO conference in Barcelona, billed as the world’s biggest conference on cultural policy. Collette stayed at the Leonardo Royal Hotel at a total cost to taxpayers of $17,939, or almost $6000 a day. To attend a four-day summit on arts and culture in South Korea, three staff, including Collette, flew business class and stayed at a further cost of $26,651.

“With 119 full-time staff and 101 international trips in just over two years, Creative Australia is almost at the point where every staff member could have had an overseas trip. That doesn’t pass the pub test,” Leeser said.

But Collette told Senate estimates he had represented Australia on behalf of the minister at Barcelona and was a member of the international federation that staged the Seoul summit that brought together key leaders and decision-makers from around the world to chart the future on arts and cultural policy.

International travel and engagement was directly tied to the agency’s legislated role to support and promote the development of markets and audiences for Australian artists. As well as opening opportunities for artists, staff attendance advanced Australia’s international arts and culture reputation on the world stage.

His own presence at those forums would make a “difference to the sector” ahead of the review planned for Labor’s national cultural policy, Collette said.

“We are in the position of advising on arts policy and that conference was looking at three or four really vital themes including artificial intelligence and various questions around the creation of cultural policy.”

The spending comes as the Australian Design Centre announced it will close next year after failing to secure federal funding and enough state funding in the latest grant rounds, short of the $350,000 it needs annually to keep its doors open.

In September, more than 100 artists accused the federal funding agency of acting like a “closed shop” after organisers of Sculpture by the Sea disclosed they came close to cancelling the famous coastal walk following a $200,000 budget shortfall. The event was rescued by private sponsor NRMA.

The agency also came under intense scrutiny after announcing Sydney-based artist Khaled Sabsabi as Australia’s representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale, only for its board to sack him a week later due to controversy over two major works, one featuring now dead Hezbollah leader and the other a video rendering of the 9/11 attacks.

Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino were later reinstated with an apology from Collette, following sustained protests from the arts sector. The federal opposition continues to question Sabsabi’s suitability while Collette defended Sabsabi as “a very distinguished artist”.

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