CULTURAL FUNDING BY GOVERNMENT

This report presents an overview of expenditure on cultural activities funded by the Tasmanian Government. The data used in this report are available in the data cube for Tasmania attached to Cultural Funding by Government, Australia, 2011-12 (cat. no. 4183.0) on the ABS website.

In 2011-12, the estimate of cultural expenditure funded by the Tasmanian Government rose 14% to $130.0m which was 4% of the total cultural expenditure funded by state and territory governments. Recurrent expenses accounted for 89% of Tasmanian Government cultural expenditure. The estimate of per person expenditure by the Tasmanian Government was $253.80.

Total cultural expenditure funded by the Tasmanian Government has increased 50% from $86.6m in 2007-08 to $130.0m in 2011-12.

In 2011-12, the estimate of expenditure of Tasmanian Government funds for Heritage activities increased 17% to $117.9m. Driving this movement was an increase in recurrent and capital expenditure of funding on Libraries from $21.0m in both 2009-10 and 2010-11 to $41.9m in 2011-12. This increase was partially offset by a fall in expenditure on Other museums and cultural heritage, down 33% to $11.0m. Funds for Environmental heritage made up almost half (49%) of all Tasmanian Government Heritage expenditure.
In 2011-12, the estimate of expenditure by the Tasmanian Government for Arts activities fell 12% to $12.1m. The main driver of this fall was Visual arts and crafts, down 39% to $1.7m. An estimated 38% of Tasmanian Government expenditure on Arts was directed to the Other arts category. The category with the next highest Arts expenditure was Music performance, accounting for 23% of total Arts expenditure in 2011-12.