Triumph of cowardice over creativity a huge cause for concern
From books, music, paintings, plays and artists such as William Dobell and Barry Humphries, bureaucrats have thrown creativity to the wind to protect themselves. But rarely has an arts organisation been caught so cravenly looking over its shoulder for government approval, first dumping Sabsabi and Dagostino, and then when the coast was clear nearly five months later, reinstating them this week to represent Australia next year.
Their removal saw Creative Australia sacrifice integrity and judgment to a panic more political than moral that followed the Dural caravan bomb hoax, and graffiti and fire attacks around synagogues and schools. The agency's artistic quandary was clearly fanned by Labor and the Coalition's attempts to look tough on antisemitism in the lead-up to the federal election.
Creative Australia announced Sabsabi and Dagostino as our representatives to the Venice Biennale on February 7, after briefing Minister for the Arts Tony Burke. The previous month the caravan was found in Dural, and subsequently The Australian newspaper ran a story highlighting a 2007 Sabsabi video installation featuring Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, a declared terrorist organisation. The story prompted questions in parliament about two of Sabsabi's historic works, and Burke then called Creative Australia's CEO Adrian Collette, asking why he had not been alerted to the contentious artwork. Hours later, the board met and resolved to dump Sabsabi and Dagostino.
The board's action triggered uproar in the arts sector, with artists pitted against the very organisation that is meant to serve them, resignations, and potential embarrassment on the international stage with admissions that the Australian Pavilion in Venice could be left vacant in the face of an artists' boycott.
Loading
A subsequent review by Blackhall & Pearl into the pair's abrupt termination on February 13 does not lay blame on any single individual for the 'series of missteps, assumptions and missed opportunities', but it has certainly reduced Creative Australia's artistic credibility.
Its chair, Robert Morgan, retired last month and the Herald' s Linda Morris suggests Collette, an experienced arts administrator, will seek to set things right, and then make a diplomatic exit.
This is an organisation founded on the principle of artistic independence, but the episode illustrates the dangers of knee-jerk reaction and surrender to political pressure. Burke insisted he did not demand that heads roll, but it is clear some sort of collective political osmosis gripped Creative Australia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Perth Now
5 hours ago
- Perth Now
‘For ourselves': Albo's pointed jab at US
Anthony Albanese will pay homage to former Labor prime minister John Curtin as not just the leader who founded Australia's alliance with the US, but one who stood up against allied super powers, in pointed comments amid concerns over Australia's relationship with America. Mr Curtin's leadership, which lasted between 1941 to 1945, lasted during the Pacific War and the bombing of Darwin and Broome by the Japanese. He died while in office, before peace was declared. In a speech to mark the 80th anniversary of Mr Curtin's death on Saturday, the Prime Minister will credit the Labor figure with forging Australia's long-held alliance with the United States. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will pay tribute to John Curtin on the 80th anniversary of his death on Saturday. Jane Dempster/Pool/NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia John Curtin served as prime minister from 1941 to 1945. National Library of Australia Credit: Supplied However Mr Albanese will also note Mr Curtin's decision to stand up to the US and the United Kingdom, then led by Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill his decision not to send Australian troops to then Burma, now Myanmar, in what would have been days before it fell to the Japanese. 'Hundreds if not thousands of Australians would have been killed, or taken prisoner. It would have been a disaster every bit as crushing to national morale as the fall of Singapore,' Mr Albanese is expected to tell attendees at Sydney's John Curtin Research Centre. Mr Albanese will note that while the Australian-US alliance 'ought to be remembered as a product of Curtin's leadership in defence and foreign policy, not the extent of it'. Instead, he will say that Mr Curtin had the 'confidence and determination to think and act for ourselves'. 'Because Curtin's famous statement that Australia 'looked to America' was much more than the idea of trading one strategic guarantor for another. Or swapping an alliance with the old world for one with the new,' he will say. 'It was a recognition that Australia's fate would be decided in our region. It followed the decision Curtin had made in 1941 that Australia would issue its own declaration of war with Japan. 'Speaking for ourselves, as a sovereign nation.' Anthony Albanese credited Mr Curtin for not only cementing the Australia-US alliance but also for speaking up for Australia as a 'sovereign nation'. Max Mason-Hubers/ Pool/ NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia His remarks come as the Albanese government is currently under pressure by the Trump administration to amp up defence spending to 3.5 per cent, comes amid concerns of fragile global stability and claims from US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth that China would imminently invade Beijing. Mr Albanese has frequently rejected US pressure to amp up defence spending, stating that investment will be calculated according to Australia's needs. Labor is also under pressure to negotiate a tariff carveout, however on Friday he said he believed the levy applied to non steel and aluminium imports would remain at 10 per cent after Donald Trump's July 9 deadline. Mr Albanese is also set to champion to 'rights and the role of middle powers and smaller nations' and speak to the importance of collective responsibility in the Indo-Pacific, despite fears of China's increasing aggression in the area. Ensuring that the 'sovereignty of every nation is respected and the dignity of every individual is upheld' is another priority. He will say his government will continue to rebuild Australia 'standing as a leader and partner in the Pacific,' deepen economic engagement in South East Asia, while 'patiently and deliberately working to stabilise our relationship with China'.
West Australian
5 hours ago
- West Australian
Albanese to use a former PM John Curtin memorial speech to define Australia's sovereignty in US-Alliance
Anthony Albanese is expected to use a speech in Sydney on Saturday to draw parallels between Australia's foreign policy under his government with that of war-time PM John Curtin. Marking the 80th anniversary of the Labor leader's death, Mr Albanese will tell an address at the John Curtin Research Centre that Australia will forge its own path as a middle power in the region — just as Curtin had at the height of World War II. His speech is expected to draw on Curtin's time in office — which he will describe as 'dark days of conflict' during which the wartime PM shifted Australia's reliance on Britain to the US — forming the US Alliance. There are calls for the PM to shore up Australia's US relationship, after the Pentagon launched an AUKUS review and Donald Trump cancelled the pair's planned meeting. Mr Albanese will describe Australia's 14th prime minister, the only one born in WA, as a 'pillar of our foreign policy'. 'John Curtin is rightly honoured as the founder of Australia's alliance with the United States,' he said, in a draft version of the speech seen by The West Australian. 'Our most important defence and security partnership. And a relationship that commands bipartisan support, respect and affection in both our nations. 'Yet our Alliance with the US ought to be remembered as a product of Curtin's leadership in defence and foreign policy, not the extent of it.' In the face of global leaders, Curtin had defied requests for soldiers to travel to Burma as the Japanese military then swept South-East Asia. 'And he was locked in a battle of wills with the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill as well as the President of the United States, Franklin Roosevelt. 'Churchill wanted them in Burma – and Roosevelt backed him. 'Curtin wanted those troops for the defence of Australia. 'That's what Curtin recognised – this was a Pacific war. It was its own conflict which demanded its own strategy.' Spruiking Australia's determination to 'think and act for ourselves' he will argue the nation doesn't 'seek our inspiration overseas' but rather 'we find it right here in our people'. He's expected to outline Australia's ambitions amid an evolving environment in the Indo-Pacific, including strengthening ties with neighbouring nations and deepening economic connections. 'That's the approach our Government has taken, from day one. Rebuilding our standing as a leader and partner in the Pacific,' he will say, referring to security pacts with Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and India. 'Then – and now – we championed the rights and the role of middle powers and smaller nations.' He will also say Australia needs to 'patiently and deliberately' work to 'stabilise our relationship with China'. Mr Albanese will travel to China in August, following an invitation from President Xi Jinping before a string of other overseas trips across the Indo-Pacific this year — including Solomon Islands, Malaysia, and South Korea.
The Advertiser
5 hours ago
- The Advertiser
Why 'racist' preacher couldn't be charged by police
An Islamist preacher who called Jewish people "vile" couldn't face criminal sanctions but new laws might soon allow police to lay charges for similar comments. A ruling in the Federal Court described Wissam Haddad's speech as containing "fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic" tropes and making "perverse generalisations" about Jewish people. But police did not have scope to lay criminal charges when the incident was assessed, a senior officer has revealed. "The legal advice was it wouldn't reach the threshold for prosecution," NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a state parliamentary inquiry on Friday. The prospects of prosecution would change under laws taking effect in August, he added, although the legislation was not retrospective. Mr Haddad has been ordered by the court to remove the sermons from social media and not publicly repeat similar statements. The change targets intentional incitement of racial hatred, while existing laws dealt with publicly threatening or inciting violence. "The difficulties in the legislation are well known within the Jewish community, which is why the civil action was commenced under a different threshold," Mr Hudson said. The new law would "fill that gap", he said. Its narrow focus on race has drawn criticism but the law may be expanded to protect other groups in the future. The inquiry examining anti-Semitism in NSW was set up in February after incidents including the firebombing of a non-religious childcare centre near a synagogue and a Jewish primary school in Sydney's east. The state Labor government used the incidents as part of its justification for also expanding anti-protest laws to ban rallies outside places of worship. Australia's special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal clashed with politicians at the inquiry over a call to ban pro-Palestine protests she labelled "intimidatory" and "sinister" from city centre streets. Labor MP Stephen Lawrence suggested her comments were an "uncivil way to describe them and the people participating" and risked creating a perception in the Jewish community that the state was letting them down. "These sorts of calls that ultimately aren't grounded in law and reality can have a pernicious effect," he said. Ms Segal did not accept that characterisation but acknowledged she had not attended the protests. She relied on experiences detailed by those in the vicinity who had felt intimidated. "It was really the vehemence and the violence for what was being advocated that I was objecting to," Ms Segal said. "We should be able to go to our city and not feel that. "They were being jostled, they weren't allowed to cross, there was shouting … and they were angry they could not access the shops that they wished to." Moriah College principal Miriam Hasofer told the inquiry her school was spending $3.9 million a year on security, a figure that had nearly doubled since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. "Education is constantly disrupted, our teachers are drained, our wellbeing team is overstretched," she said. "Our leaders are operating like a counter-terrorism unit and this has become our normal." The Jewish school, in Sydney's east, faced an average of one security incident per week in 2025, she said. A spate of high-profile attacks over summer included the targeting of a Jewish community leader's former home and the spray-painting of anti-Semitic slurs in various prominent locations. Mr Hudson said reports of anti-Semitism have increased. More than 1100 hate incidents have been reported so far in 2025 - a third of which were anti-Semitic, compared with just over one-fifth of 1300 incidents reported in 2023. An Islamist preacher who called Jewish people "vile" couldn't face criminal sanctions but new laws might soon allow police to lay charges for similar comments. A ruling in the Federal Court described Wissam Haddad's speech as containing "fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic" tropes and making "perverse generalisations" about Jewish people. But police did not have scope to lay criminal charges when the incident was assessed, a senior officer has revealed. "The legal advice was it wouldn't reach the threshold for prosecution," NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a state parliamentary inquiry on Friday. The prospects of prosecution would change under laws taking effect in August, he added, although the legislation was not retrospective. Mr Haddad has been ordered by the court to remove the sermons from social media and not publicly repeat similar statements. The change targets intentional incitement of racial hatred, while existing laws dealt with publicly threatening or inciting violence. "The difficulties in the legislation are well known within the Jewish community, which is why the civil action was commenced under a different threshold," Mr Hudson said. The new law would "fill that gap", he said. Its narrow focus on race has drawn criticism but the law may be expanded to protect other groups in the future. The inquiry examining anti-Semitism in NSW was set up in February after incidents including the firebombing of a non-religious childcare centre near a synagogue and a Jewish primary school in Sydney's east. The state Labor government used the incidents as part of its justification for also expanding anti-protest laws to ban rallies outside places of worship. Australia's special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal clashed with politicians at the inquiry over a call to ban pro-Palestine protests she labelled "intimidatory" and "sinister" from city centre streets. Labor MP Stephen Lawrence suggested her comments were an "uncivil way to describe them and the people participating" and risked creating a perception in the Jewish community that the state was letting them down. "These sorts of calls that ultimately aren't grounded in law and reality can have a pernicious effect," he said. Ms Segal did not accept that characterisation but acknowledged she had not attended the protests. She relied on experiences detailed by those in the vicinity who had felt intimidated. "It was really the vehemence and the violence for what was being advocated that I was objecting to," Ms Segal said. "We should be able to go to our city and not feel that. "They were being jostled, they weren't allowed to cross, there was shouting … and they were angry they could not access the shops that they wished to." Moriah College principal Miriam Hasofer told the inquiry her school was spending $3.9 million a year on security, a figure that had nearly doubled since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. "Education is constantly disrupted, our teachers are drained, our wellbeing team is overstretched," she said. "Our leaders are operating like a counter-terrorism unit and this has become our normal." The Jewish school, in Sydney's east, faced an average of one security incident per week in 2025, she said. A spate of high-profile attacks over summer included the targeting of a Jewish community leader's former home and the spray-painting of anti-Semitic slurs in various prominent locations. Mr Hudson said reports of anti-Semitism have increased. More than 1100 hate incidents have been reported so far in 2025 - a third of which were anti-Semitic, compared with just over one-fifth of 1300 incidents reported in 2023. An Islamist preacher who called Jewish people "vile" couldn't face criminal sanctions but new laws might soon allow police to lay charges for similar comments. A ruling in the Federal Court described Wissam Haddad's speech as containing "fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic" tropes and making "perverse generalisations" about Jewish people. But police did not have scope to lay criminal charges when the incident was assessed, a senior officer has revealed. "The legal advice was it wouldn't reach the threshold for prosecution," NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a state parliamentary inquiry on Friday. The prospects of prosecution would change under laws taking effect in August, he added, although the legislation was not retrospective. Mr Haddad has been ordered by the court to remove the sermons from social media and not publicly repeat similar statements. The change targets intentional incitement of racial hatred, while existing laws dealt with publicly threatening or inciting violence. "The difficulties in the legislation are well known within the Jewish community, which is why the civil action was commenced under a different threshold," Mr Hudson said. The new law would "fill that gap", he said. Its narrow focus on race has drawn criticism but the law may be expanded to protect other groups in the future. The inquiry examining anti-Semitism in NSW was set up in February after incidents including the firebombing of a non-religious childcare centre near a synagogue and a Jewish primary school in Sydney's east. The state Labor government used the incidents as part of its justification for also expanding anti-protest laws to ban rallies outside places of worship. Australia's special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal clashed with politicians at the inquiry over a call to ban pro-Palestine protests she labelled "intimidatory" and "sinister" from city centre streets. Labor MP Stephen Lawrence suggested her comments were an "uncivil way to describe them and the people participating" and risked creating a perception in the Jewish community that the state was letting them down. "These sorts of calls that ultimately aren't grounded in law and reality can have a pernicious effect," he said. Ms Segal did not accept that characterisation but acknowledged she had not attended the protests. She relied on experiences detailed by those in the vicinity who had felt intimidated. "It was really the vehemence and the violence for what was being advocated that I was objecting to," Ms Segal said. "We should be able to go to our city and not feel that. "They were being jostled, they weren't allowed to cross, there was shouting … and they were angry they could not access the shops that they wished to." Moriah College principal Miriam Hasofer told the inquiry her school was spending $3.9 million a year on security, a figure that had nearly doubled since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. "Education is constantly disrupted, our teachers are drained, our wellbeing team is overstretched," she said. "Our leaders are operating like a counter-terrorism unit and this has become our normal." The Jewish school, in Sydney's east, faced an average of one security incident per week in 2025, she said. A spate of high-profile attacks over summer included the targeting of a Jewish community leader's former home and the spray-painting of anti-Semitic slurs in various prominent locations. Mr Hudson said reports of anti-Semitism have increased. More than 1100 hate incidents have been reported so far in 2025 - a third of which were anti-Semitic, compared with just over one-fifth of 1300 incidents reported in 2023. An Islamist preacher who called Jewish people "vile" couldn't face criminal sanctions but new laws might soon allow police to lay charges for similar comments. A ruling in the Federal Court described Wissam Haddad's speech as containing "fundamentally racist and anti-Semitic" tropes and making "perverse generalisations" about Jewish people. But police did not have scope to lay criminal charges when the incident was assessed, a senior officer has revealed. "The legal advice was it wouldn't reach the threshold for prosecution," NSW Police Deputy Commissioner David Hudson told a state parliamentary inquiry on Friday. The prospects of prosecution would change under laws taking effect in August, he added, although the legislation was not retrospective. Mr Haddad has been ordered by the court to remove the sermons from social media and not publicly repeat similar statements. The change targets intentional incitement of racial hatred, while existing laws dealt with publicly threatening or inciting violence. "The difficulties in the legislation are well known within the Jewish community, which is why the civil action was commenced under a different threshold," Mr Hudson said. The new law would "fill that gap", he said. Its narrow focus on race has drawn criticism but the law may be expanded to protect other groups in the future. The inquiry examining anti-Semitism in NSW was set up in February after incidents including the firebombing of a non-religious childcare centre near a synagogue and a Jewish primary school in Sydney's east. The state Labor government used the incidents as part of its justification for also expanding anti-protest laws to ban rallies outside places of worship. Australia's special envoy to combat anti-Semitism Jillian Segal clashed with politicians at the inquiry over a call to ban pro-Palestine protests she labelled "intimidatory" and "sinister" from city centre streets. Labor MP Stephen Lawrence suggested her comments were an "uncivil way to describe them and the people participating" and risked creating a perception in the Jewish community that the state was letting them down. "These sorts of calls that ultimately aren't grounded in law and reality can have a pernicious effect," he said. Ms Segal did not accept that characterisation but acknowledged she had not attended the protests. She relied on experiences detailed by those in the vicinity who had felt intimidated. "It was really the vehemence and the violence for what was being advocated that I was objecting to," Ms Segal said. "We should be able to go to our city and not feel that. "They were being jostled, they weren't allowed to cross, there was shouting … and they were angry they could not access the shops that they wished to." Moriah College principal Miriam Hasofer told the inquiry her school was spending $3.9 million a year on security, a figure that had nearly doubled since October 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel. "Education is constantly disrupted, our teachers are drained, our wellbeing team is overstretched," she said. "Our leaders are operating like a counter-terrorism unit and this has become our normal." The Jewish school, in Sydney's east, faced an average of one security incident per week in 2025, she said. A spate of high-profile attacks over summer included the targeting of a Jewish community leader's former home and the spray-painting of anti-Semitic slurs in various prominent locations. Mr Hudson said reports of anti-Semitism have increased. More than 1100 hate incidents have been reported so far in 2025 - a third of which were anti-Semitic, compared with just over one-fifth of 1300 incidents reported in 2023.
