Submit to Revive Cultural Policy Review: use our guide

The Australian Government is currently reviewing REVIVE, Australia’s National Cultural Policy. This review is an important opportunity to shape the future of arts and culture in Australia and ensure the sector reflects the realities, diversity and creative leadership of contemporary Australia.

Diversity Arts Australia (DARTS) has developed a submission calling for anti-racism, cultural safety, accountability and equitable participation to be embedded as core principles across Australia’s cultural ecosystem.

Our submission argues that culturally and racially marginalised (CaRM) communities must be explicitly named and recognised within national cultural policy, and that long-term structural reform is needed to ensure meaningful equity and participation.

The key recommendations in our submission are:

1. Strengthen First Nations self-determination, cultural authority and Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) protections across national cultural policy.
   
2. Explicitly name Culturally and Racially Marginalised and underrepresented Culturally and Linguistically Diverse communities and set direct, measurable actions to address their systemic underrepresentation
3. Develop and resource a national, industry-led Anti-Racism and Cultural Equity Strategy aligned with the Australian Human Rights Commission’s (AHRC) National Anti-Racism Framework and Multicultural Framework Review Roadmap.
   
4. Establish a CaRM Creator Fund and protected funding streams for CaRM-led organisations and projects and creatives.
   
5. Establish a national CaRM Leadership, Workforce and Participation Pathways Strategy across the arts, screen and creative sectors.
6. Protect freedom of artistic and creative expression and establish safe reporting mechanisms for censorship, racism and discrimination.
   
7. Embed compulsory anti-racism, cultural safety and equity training across publicly funded organisations and require equity action plans and accountability mechanisms.
   
8. Measure and report on diversity across workforce, leadership, funding, programming, commissioning, collections and audience participation.
   
9. Reform funding, tax and regulatory systems to improve equity and access for CaRM creatives, community-led practice and small-to-medium organisations.
   
10. Regulate AI industries and develop AI guidelines specific to the creative sector, and ensure equitable participation, cultural and intellectual rights and artist protections within emerging technologies and digital cultural spaces.

Another key recommendation from the Joint Community Cultural Development Network (CCDN) submission, highlights the critical role of Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) in building social cohesion, participation, resilience and community connection:

1. Recognise and resource Community Arts and Cultural Development (CACD) as a distinct, essential sector and provide regional and CaRM cultural infrastructure.

Make your own submission

We encourage artists, arts workers, organisations and communities to contribute to the review process and help shape the future of Australia’s cultural policy. We particularly encourage submissions from culturally and racially marginalised artists, community organisations, regional practitioners, young people, and others whose experiences are often underrepresented in national policy conversations.

To support this, we have developed some submission guidelines that individuals and organisations can adapt for their own submissions:

Where to make your submission 

You can either make a submission as an individual or as an organisation. Submissions are made via this online form.

You can either write a statement with your recommendations of up to 500 words directly in the form, or upload a document (.docx or .pdf preferred). The form will also ask for a contact name, email address, postcode and whether you are from a specific demographic group.

You can select for your submission to remain private and confidential if you are uncomfortable making your submission public.

How to write your submission

The department will utilise artificial intelligence (AI) tools to analyse submissions and identify common themes and issues. We therefore recommend you

1. Use consistent terminology throughout rather than switching between similar terms – we strongly recommend using Culturally and Racially Marginalised (CaRM) or underrepresented Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CaLD). Using the same terms repeatedly will help your submission be found and counted.
2. Include a short executive summary and clearly numbered recommendations on the first page
3. Focus on making clear, concise, action-oriented recommendations, rather than only listing problems

You can use this template to help you structure your response.