This page was updated on 12 May 2009
The Collections Council lodged a submission to the Australian Budget for 2009-2010 by writing to the Australian Government’s Department of the Treasury – Budget Policy Division.
The Council offered seven recommendations for consideration in the Budget.
Recommendations 1, 2 and 3 seek support for the Collections Council’s initiatives that relate to digital heritage collections, the use of collections by school students and other learners, and a system of support for collections in regional Australia.
Recommendations 4, 5 and 6 encourage continuing support for grants programs that use Commonwealth funds to support Australia’s collections.
Recommendation 7 seeks support for the continuing development of the Commonwealth’s own collections, with particular reference to the new digital challenges: developing and sustaining new technologies has a significant financial impact, and may draw from other activities if not provided for in budgets.
RECOMMENDATION #1
That the Australian Government provide $700,000 over two years for the Collections Council of Australia to develop an Australian Framework for Digital Heritage Collections, in order to guide collecting organisations in meeting the challenges, and making use of the opportunities, arising from increased use of digital technologies in all aspects of society.
RECOMMENDATION #2
That the Australian Government provide $1.3 million over two years for the Collections Council of Australia to develop, produce and distribute the What’s Inside? resource, in order to increase access to collections by school students and other learners, encourage relationships between education and collecting organisations, and improve relationships between learners and collections.
RECOMMENDATION #3
That the Australian Government provide $1.162 million in the 2009-10 budget, and a further $44.847 million over the period 2010 to 2019 for the Collections Council of Australia to establish, administer and evaluate CollectionsCare, in order to provide for the long term sustainability and accessibility of significant collections across regional Australia. CollectionsCare will facilitate the development, protection and promotion of the distributed national collection.
RECOMMENDATION #4
That the Australian Government encourage and support the continuation of the Community Heritage Grants Program, noting that it is made possible by contributions from the budgets of the National Library of Australia, the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, the National Archives of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Museum of Australia, in order to preserve and provide access to locally held, nationally significant cultural heritage collections across Australia.
RECOMMENDATION #5
That the Australian Government encourage and support the continuation of the Maritime Museums of Australia Project Support Scheme, noting that it is made possible by contributions from the budgets of the Australian National Maritime Museum and the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, in order to support projects encompassing collection management, conservation and presentation by maritime museums in Australia.
RECOMMENDATION #6
That the Australian Government support the continuation of grants programs that assist the collections sector, including, but not limited to, the grants for arts and culture, and for taxonomic research, that are administered by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, in order to assist programs and organisations that are actively preserving, researching and exhibiting Australia’s cultural and scientific material.
RECOMMENDATION #7
That the Australian Government support the continuing development of collections held by federally funded institutions, agencies and departments by augmenting the budgets of organisations including, but not limited to, Artbank, the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, the Australian National Botanic Gardens, the Australian National Maritime Museum, the Australian National University (including the Library, the Noel Butlin Archives Centre, the Classics Museum, and the Anthropology, Art and Geology Collections), the Australian War Memorial, CSIRO (including the Australian National Herbarium and the Australian National Insect Collection), the Bundanon Trust, Geoscience Australia, the National Archives of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Library of Australia, the National Museum of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, Old Parliament House, and the Parliament House Collections, in order to help them meet both the newer challenges of (a) digitising their existing collections to improve accessibility and ensure sustainability, and (b) collecting new digital material in an appropriate and sustainable manner, and also the continuing challenges of (c) developing their tangible (non-digital) collections, and (d) providing leadership to the collections sector.
Click HERE to read the full text of the Collections Council’s submission as a PDF download.
Budget 2009-2010
The Australian Government introduced the Budget for 2009-2010 on 12 May 2009. Click HERE to access the Budget papers.
The Collections Council is pleased to note some items that are good news for the national collecting organisations:
- $0.8 million for a business case for an infrastructure project that would enable the National Archives of Australia, the National Film and Sound Archive and the National Library of Australia to collaborate on digitising their existing collections. This is an important step (required by government process) towards more substantial funding – hopefully in 2010-2011 – and addresses, in part, Recommendation 7 in the Collections Council's Budget submission. Implementation of the collaborative project would help address the message from the Australia 2020 Summit concerning digitisation of the nation’s collections, and might enable flow-on benefits to the wider collections sector.
- $4 million for a touring and outreach program to enable the national collecting organisations to tour cultural collections – in Australia and overseas.
- Government support for the National Museum of Australia to develop a business case for options to accommodate and make accessible the museum’s growing collections.
Click HERE to read the media release issued by the Collections Council on Budget night, 12 May 2009.
The Collections Council will continue to analyse the Budget with respect to the needs of the collections sector, and will update this web-page when further information is available.