The Conservative magazine Quadrant has called the loss of its Australia Council funding an “act of revenge” from an arts bureaucracy controlled by the left.
“The Australia Council’s decision to end our funding is plainly an act of revenge by its bureaucrats and advisers,”
editor-in-chief
Keith Windschuttle wrote in an editorial.“It is designed to punish us for being on the same side of the political fence as the Abbott government’s Minister for the Arts, George Brandis, who himself was responding to an act of arts-funding bastardry by Julia Gillard.
“Throughout the 11 years of the Howard government, its appointees to the Council never reduced the funding of any of the overtly left-wing literary magazines.”
Windschuttle, a conservative historian, said the Australia Council had made a “political decision” not to award a $60,000 grant to Quadrant because it wanted to “devalue our reputation and demonstrate that the Left remains in control of the arts”.
Last week it was revealed that another literary magazine, Meanjin, might be forced to shut down after its funding was also cut by the council.
Ugh, the laughter at Quadrant likely going under. Go and read some Les Murray for your sins, peasants.
— elle hardy (@ellehardytweets) May 16, 2016
Windschuttle acknowledged that Meanjin had also lost its funding but blamed its problems on a “succession of editors” and berated the council for funding rival literary magazines the Australian Book Review, the Griffith Review and Overland.
“They are little more than production lines for the Left’s limitless appetite for identity group politics of gender, race and sexual preference, and its support for any national culture, no matter how violent or barbaric, except our own,” Windschuttle wrote.
“In contrast, since its founding in 1956, Quadrant has consistently defended high culture, freedom of speech, liberal democracy and the Western Judeo-Christian tradition.
“Although the Australia Council itself suffered a loss of government funds in 2015, the Quadrant decision was not taken because of a lack of money for literature. Indeed, while abolishing our grant, the council increased its funding to other literary magazines, all of them left-wing.
Windschuttle claimed only Quadrant was serious about publishing literature, and poetry in particular, and had more subscribers than any other literary magazine.
“Quadrant is also the most prolific publisher of poetry in Australia, in either magazine or book format, with up to 300 poems published per year for the past decade.
“Our Literary Editor, Les Murray, has worked on every edition since 1990, that is, for 256 of the magazine’s 518 editions. He is not only widely recognized as Australia’s greatest living poet but also Australia’s foremost poetry anthologist.”
A spokeswoman for the Australia Council said Meanjin, which was considered a leftwing journal, was also unsuccessful in receiving four-year funding.
“All out arts grants are assessed by a panel of artistic peers and it’s a competitive process. We can’t fund everyone,” she said.
The Australia Council gave $112m to 128 small to medium arts organisations in this funding round, announced on Friday.
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This discussion is now closed for comments but you can still sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion next timeA mud bubble flops open from the art glut to add extra stink to the petrol lake to waft around the cheese mountain that won't all go through the intellectual property sieve. Burp and bring the irresponsible minister's head on a plate to place upon yon sideboard next to prize nutcrackers in the empty bowl where bits of broken shell and other less identifiable scraps lie around, still haven't been cleaned up - make note - and take another swipe at the little screen. The frame that hangs the picture perfect scene ignored other than to be beside the door to the outside and some fresh still hanging air waiting for the day to begin again. It's them, their fault and I'm telling on you two too hardy ha ha. Here we go again promises promises. I remember some fool who had to resign a la Sidere mens eadem mutato to go rue at leisure and wonder who else would care when it's too exquisitely obscure to comprehend.
Samples of literary excellence and serious 'high culture' publishing are available in this piece, The Guardian of the Inane.
Let's start with a fart joke:
Then move on to Australian taxpayer dollars being used to discredit a news outlet:
Whilst not mentioning Rupert Murdoch:
And finish in a serve at the likewise taxpayer-funded ABC:
Not poetry. Poetic justice that you lost funding for your crass political attacks.
For all its conservative bias (and CIA origins) Quadrant used to be a magazine well worth reading for intelligent, challenging cultural articles and social critique. Yes, from a conservative perspective, but nuanced, thoughtful and very well argued pieces.
Unfortunately, much of its content in the last decade is right-wing garbage that's is a bigoted poorly thought out, or just stupid, as anything (from a left perspective) you'd find in a Trotskyite or Maoist rag.....
That's a really good post.