Government spent $7 billion on cultural activities

Australia's federal, state and local governments spent just over $7 billion on cultural activities during 2012-13, according to new figures released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

"State and territory governments contributed nearly half this amount or $3.3 billion, the federal government contributed one-third or $2.4 billion, and local government contributed $1.4 billion, on cultural activities" said Mr Andrew Middleton, Director of Culture, Recreation and Migration Statistics at the ABS.

"Overall, the total government expenditure on cultural activities in 2012-13 went up by one per cent - about $70 million - from the previous year. The highest expenditure of Australian Government funds was on radio and television services, at $1.3 billion in 2012-13, which was a similar amount to expenditure in 2011-12.

"At the state and territory government level, the biggest expenditure was for environmental heritage, this includes national parks, flora and fauna reserves, zoos, aquaria and botanic gardens, with $1.3 billion.

"Recurrent expenditure was $6 billion, an increase of two per cent from 2011-12, and capital expenditure was $1 billion which was a decrease of 4 per cent from 2011-12," said Mr Middleton.

More details, including data for individual states and territories, can be found in Cultural Funding by Government, 2012-13 (cat. no. 4183.0) available for free on the ABS website www.abs.gov.au.