On Saturday night, the ABC show Rage broadcast a playlist of Melbourne songs and managed to be disciplined enough to keep this list to 101. I won't debate the selection—here, at least—but that there's such a range speaks volumes. This was a lovely gesture and much appreciated by many of us in lockdown, including those who didn't manage to stay up quite so late. It was also a powerful reminder of the connection between the arts and place. While there are themes that are universal, how we tell those stories that are ours matters. They define us as Australians and, indeed, as Melburnians, and they offer those of us whose lives are presently confined a glimpse of both how things were and how they can be, of hope along with connection—and both matter so much now.
But, for the people who tell these stories, write these songs and otherwise create the art that speaks to our sense of ourselves and our place in the world, times could not be tougher. The pandemic has devastated our creative industries. So I welcome this motion, and I thank the member for Boothby for bringing it before the parliament and, in particular, for her remarks on the significance of our First Nations art, something that really is unique to our country. This is so important.
But I can't support all the motions before the House, because there is so much more that needs to be done. The Morrison government has failed to safeguard our creative industries and has abandoned many thousands of Australian creatives, so many of whom will, I fear, be lost to the arts forever. They have been cut off from income support, of course, cruelly and unnecessarily. In effect, they have been given a message about their value that is simply wrong. Let me be clear: this is not Labor's view. While state governments—in particular the Victorian government with the leadership of my friend the minister, Martin Foley—engaged early and seriously with structured supports for the creative industries, this has been yet another case of too little and too late from the Morrison government. It was more than five months ago that Labor called for a comprehensive industry support package, recognising that, as the shadow minister has said, we're talking about the first industry to have been shut down due to the pandemic, an industry which will also face very, very significant challenges when it comes to re-emerging from the crisis.
The motion before us is right to identify, as it does, the importance of the arts to regional economies, but its terms indicate in themselves that we need to do more and also to think harder. From our perspective now, international tourism, most obviously, looks very different. We do need to focus on how we can rebuild a visitor economy that is in significant part driven by the arts—or, rather, a number of such visitor economies. We need to put in place the right supports and the right plans—supports, in the first place, for our creatives and plans that are sufficiently adaptive to an uncertain environment. Questions of the timing of borders reopening and, indeed, of how people might behave in a new world as consumers—in particular attitudes to crowds even in the absence of social distancing requirements—need very careful consideration. The arts have a critical role to play in our recovery. This much should be evident to all of us. Our challenge, though, is to ensure that we in this place are doing what we can to enable this in all of its dimensions.
As the shadow minister for cities, my concern is to see our entertainment precincts once again become drivers of livability and productivity. I know how important this is to all of our cities. Around the world, there's increasing recognition of the critical role creative industries play in driving economic growth and productivity growth. Recent work by the Brookings Institution and the LSE makes this clear. In Australia, this presents a huge opportunity, but we can't and must not assume it will happen all by itself. There is a fundamental role for government here. Brookings tell us that a substantial and sustained national creative economy recovery strategy is required—for the US, of course, in their case. But it's equally true—more so, I would say—here. But are the minister and the Morrison government listening? There's a fundamental debate also to be had beyond all of this about how we value creativity as a society as well as an economy and how we support it. That's a debate Labor is very keen to have in this place and in the community.
This motion, for me, brings before the House three critical issues: support for artists to get them through this crisis, support for the arts as fundamental to our identity, and the role of the creative industries in our economy as a vital linchpin of our recovery. These aren't options; they have to go together. Now we can't leave anyone behind. Our stories matter more than ever, and we must recognise that the talents of Australians must be supported to help all of us rebuild.