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enabling censorship and GROSS political interference in the arts....

The board of Creative Australia, formerly the Australia Council, has betrayed its mission by enabling censorship and gross political interference in the arts, and its members must resign or be sacked.

Five days after Lebanese-born artist Khaled Sabsabi was appointed to represent Australia at the next Venice Biennale in 2026, he was unceremoniously dumped by the board late on 13 February. The decision followed an attack on the artist’s work by The Australian, flagship of the Murdoch media empire, and questions in Parliament by opposition arts spokesperson Claire Chandler.

 

The betrayal of Creative Australia    By Judith White

 

The art world has reacted in fury. All five artists shortlisted with Sabsabi for the position immediately demanded his reinstatement. In an open letter to the board, they wrote that his removal was “antithetical to the goodwill and hard-fought artistic independence, freedom of speech and moral courage that is at the core of arts in Australia, which plays a crucial role in our thriving and democratic nation”. The signatories were Dhopiya Yunupingu, Hayley Millar Baker, James Nguyen, Jenna Mayilema Lee and Mei O’Callaghan, and their curators.

Creative Australia’s own head of visual arts, Mikala Tai, and program manager Tahmina Maskinyar both resigned in protest, and a number of staff walked out. Philanthropist Simon Mordant resigned as international ambassador for the event, saying it was “a very dark day for the arts”. Artist and board member Lindy Lee also resigned, saying Thursday’s board meeting was “fraught and heartbreaking” and she felt there had been a violation of the core value that “the artist’s voice must never be silenced”. Penelope Benton, executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts, called the decision “deeply troubling”.

Sabsabi and his appointed curator Michael Dagostino, chief executive of Sydney University’s Chau Chak Wing Museum and much respected for his leadership in the arts in Western Sydney, also reacted immediately. They said they were “extremely hurt and disappointed” and that “art should not be censored as artists reflect the times they live in”.

More than 3000 artists, writers and academics signed an open letter calling for the reinstatement of Sabsabi and Dagostino, and the number continues to grow daily.

On 17 February, the highly-credentialled selection panel, which had recommended Sabsabi’s appointment, wrote to the board expressing deep concern, demanding an explanation and expressing support for Sabsabi and Dagostino. The letter was signed by all five members – Dr Mariko Smith, First Nations curator at the National Museum, Professor Anthony Gardner of Oxford University, Dunja Rmandič, director of Mornington Peninsula Gallery, Wassan A-Khudhairi, contemporary art curator and Elaine Chia, executive director of the Naomi MIlgrom Foundation.

The work in question

Sabsabi has worked as a video artist for more than three decades, and is widely collected and exhibited nationally and internationally. The Museum of Contemporary Art describes his work as exploring “the complexities of place, displacement, identity and ideological differences associated with migrant experiences and marginalisation”.

The work which has so exercised the Duttonites and Murdochites is a 2007 video You, in which the artist uses an image of assassinated Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, speaking in 2006 after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon was repulsed. (Hezbollah, of course, was formed in 1982 to resist a prior Israeli invasion. It has both a political arm and a military wing – like Sinn Fein and the IRA.) Another work, Thank You Very Much, includes footage of planes hitting New York’s World Trade Centre in 2001. Like all his work, most of which he produces in Western Sydney, both of these are concerned to bring together global events and daily life and enhance understanding of diverse cultures.

At the time he was appointed to the Venice Biennale role, Sabsabi said that of course artists of Middle Eastern origin are affected by the conflict there. “How can you not be affected when you have family, when you have friends there? As a human being, as a Lebanese, as an Arab, as a Muslim, as an Australian, what’s been happening is inhumane and unacceptable. This violence, destruction cannot be sustained. We need a way forward for all of us to co-exist and to respect the rights of Palestinian people and their right of return to their lands and culture.”

These may have been the words that sparked the attention of the Murdoch media and its urgers in the Zionist lobby.

But serious arts writers have long taken Sabsabi’s work seriously. Reviewing a 2020 exhibition of Sabsabi’s work at the Art Gallery of NSW, Gina Fairley wrote on the website ArtsHub: “It speaks of collected beliefs and humanity at a time when we need to be empathetic and accepting.”

Not the kind of work, then, that goes down well with Dutton’s shadow arts minister, Senator Claire Chandler. She claims that Sabsabi has “repeatedly depicted terrorists and terrorist acts in his work”.

So art should not encompass images that aim to increase our understanding of the violence in the world? Who’s next on her hit list – Picasso? Goya?

You would once have thought that a Labor Government would rebuff such crude attacks on culture from the opposition. You would once have thought that Arts Minister Tony Burke, who likes to be seen as the acceptable face of Labor realpolitik, would step up to the mark. But there’s a federal election coming. After Senator Chandler put a question in Parliament to Foreign Minister Penny Wong on 13 February, right before that Creative Australia board meeting, Burke said he was “shocked” to see images from the two videos. He also said that it was right to review Sabsabi’s selection.

The board and the government

It raises the question of who knew on that Thursday night what the board, chaired by Clemenger advertising boss Robert Morgan, was about to decide. Artists, curators and professional advisers clearly weren’t consulted.

Creative Australia is the government’s peak body for the arts. Burke claims he abided by his obligation not to interfere politically in the organisation’s work. But when questioned by Sarah Ferguson on the ABC’s 7.30 on 17 February, he admitted that he had called chief executive Adrian Collette that Thursday, after Chandler’s question in the Senate and before the board meeting. Not something, surely, that he was in the habit of doing. It makes his claim that the decision was made “at arm’s length from me” look hollow.

In its statement announcing the dumping of the artist, the board said it “believes a prolonged and divisive debate about the 2026 selection outcome poses an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia’s artistic community and could undermine our goal of bringing Australians together”.

Instead they’ve achieved a remarkable own goal. Their decision has ensured a prolonged debate, has alienated artists, young people and entire communities and has already tarnished Australia’s image overseas – the London-based Art Newspaper picked up the story within 24 hours. And that’s a false flag about “division”, one often used by the Zionist lobby. It puts aside everyone who disagrees with them as being unworthy of “inclusion”.

It’s disturbing to see Creative Australia being dragged into line by a chain of command that stretches back to Washington and Tel Aviv. The US decides that Nasrallah is a terrorist, so not only can he be assassinated, but his very image is considered a threat. (You know who else they designated a terrorist? Nelson Mandela! Even for years after his release from 28-year incarceration, even after he became president of South Africa.) Successive Australian Governments take the word of Washington. Next thing you know, Nasrallah’s image is banned from works of art.

Make no mistake, right-wing interference in the Venice Biennale appointment is designed to intimidate and silence artists and others who have spoken out against genocide by the Zionist Israeli state against Palestinians and its violations of international law in Lebanon and elsewhere.

Now the board of Creative Australia has announced a review – not of its dumping of Sabsabi, but of the selection process. This smacks of political manoeuvring. It must not be allowed to further undermine either the artist or the selection panel.

Artists cannot be silenced about what is taking place in the world, and Australian arts bodies must not be dragged into the sordid practice of toeing the government line. Enough is enough.

Reinstate Khaled Sabsabi now!

You can email Creative Australia at [email protected] and Arts Minister Tony Burke via the parliamentary website.

You can also sign the open letter calling for the reinstatement of Sabsabi and Dagostino on the Memo website.

Updated 18 February 2025

 

https://johnmenadue.com/the-betrayal-of-creative-australia-pic-khaled-sabsabi/

 

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

HYPOCRISY ISN’T ONE OF THE SINS OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

HENCE ITS POPULARITY IN THE ABRAHAMIC TRADITIONS…

 

artful vs arts.....

 

Cultural McCarthyism in Australia: The new battleground for artistic freedom    By Samuel Cairnduff and Greg Barns

 

McCarthyism — the infamous anti-communist witch hunt of the 1950s — is thought of as a dark chapter in American history, where accusations alone could destroy careers, reputations, and entire artistic movements. Figures such as screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, playwright Lillian Hellman, and actor John Garfield saw their careers derailed, with many blacklisted from the industry. That frightening era is upon us again with elements of the pro-Israel lobby and governments working over weak cultural institutions such as Creative Australia to ban artists.

The war in Gaza has, since it began in October 2023, become a crucible for Australia’s cultural sector, exposing fault lines in our pre-eminent institutions. Where these organisations once confidently championed liberal causes like Marriage Equality and the Voice to Parliament, secure in the knowledge that their stakeholder base broadly supported such positions, the Gaza conflict has forced a more revealing choice. Caught between pro-Israel stakeholders (often significant philanthropic donors) and the groundswell of artists and audiences expressing solidarity with Palestine, these institutions have chosen the path of suppression rather than dialogue. This is what happened in the era of the Wisconsin senator, Joe McCarthy.

This new form of McCarthyism has surfaced within our most prestigious cultural bodies – the National Gallery of Australia, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, the Sydney Theatre Company, and, most recently, Creative Australia itself, the arm’s-length government body charged with overseeing funding for them all. These organisations stand at the apex of our nation’s artistic and cultural life, and by virtue of their public funding, have a mandated responsibility to generate public value – a complex, contextual and often elusive combination of symbolic representation, cultural enrichment, and measurable social and economic benefits. Yet, instead of fulfilling this mandate, they have adopted a pattern of pre-emptive self-censorship, driven by political pressure and the chilling effect of reputational risk. Call it for what it is – Cultural McCarthyism.

The implications are stark: while these institutions frame their actions as risk management or crisis control, the underlying reality is far more troubling. What masquerades as public relations strategy reveals a darker pattern of institutional capitulation – whether to pressure from specific interest groups or fears of losing philanthropic funding. This culture of acquiescence betrays a profound failure of leadership: an unwillingness to engage with challenging issues and a lack of moral courage at the highest levels.

The result? Knee-jerk decisions — such as the recent removal of Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino from the Venice Biennale, the cancellation last year of acclaimed pianist Jayson Gillham’s MSO performance, or last week’s chilling physical concealment of Palestinian flags in Pacific artist Rosanna Raymond’s tapestry at the NGA — that, ironically, inflict far greater damage to these institutions’ integrity and credibility than the perceived risks they so desperately seek to avoid. The question is no longer whether censorship is occurring – it is whether there remains any institutional backbone to resist it. Let’s take a look at some of these examples of Cultural McCarthyism.

The National Gallery’s act of erasure

The National Gallery of Australia’s recent decision to cover Palestinian flags in a tapestry at the Te Paepae Aora’i – Where the Gods Cannot Be Fooled exhibition is a textbook case of Cultural McCarthyism. The tapestry, curated by Rosanna Raymond and created by the SaVĀge K’lub collective, features flags symbolising struggles for justice – West Papua, Torres Strait Islanders, and Aboriginal Australia among them. The decision to censor only the Palestinian flag speaks volumes. The NGA justified its action by citing a “security risk”, yet failed to provide specifics, raising the question of whether the real motivation was institutional self-preservation in the face of potential controversy – or some other unspecified fear? This, remarkably, from the Gallery itself. Why doesn’t the board and management of the NGA level with the community and state what is obvious – it got harassed by one of the most effective lobby groups in Australia, the political Zionist movement, and succumbed to its, and no doubt Albanese Government pressure.

In a climate of decolonisation — a principle that sits at the heart of our national cultural policy Revive and its heavily promoted ‘First Nations First‘ mandate, one that cultural institutions have rushed to embed in their strategic plans and promotional materials — the NGA’s decision to compromise, reshape and literally cover up a work by an Indigenous artist is particularly egregious. That this censorship occurred within a national gallery, a deeply colonial institution, and involved forcing an Indigenous artist to accept either censorship or exclusion, makes an absolute mockery of the decolonial values they claim to champion.

As Raymond herself put it, the decision was “absolutely horrifying”. The NGA itself acknowledged that it placed artists “in a difficult position.”

The Venice Biennale debacle: A chilling warning to artists

Earlier last week Creative Australia’s rescinding of Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino’s appointment for the 2026 Venice Biennale provided another high-profile and shocking example of this tool of Cultural McCarthyism, the cultural purge. Initially selected through a rigorous process, their removal came after a campaign of political and media pressure — most notably from right-leaning, Murdoch-owned The Australian newspaper and the shadow arts minister. The ostensible reason? Sabsabi’s 2007 video work You, which features manipulated images of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in a way that deliberately ambiguously complicates, rather than glorifies, his image, as was suggested in pointed questioning in parliament from Senator Claire Chandler.

As Ben Eltham and Catriona Menzies-Pike noted in Crikey, it took just one question in the Senate to topple this house of cards. The decision wasn’t about an honest curatorial reassessment, but a knee-jerk reaction to external political pressure. “If conservative media is going to dictate cultural policy,” the authors wrote, “Australian culture will face a reckoning.”

Beyond the specific case of Sabsabi, this incident underscores the precarious position of artists working in politically charged spaces. The message from Creative Australia’s leadership is clear: if your work touches on contested histories or identities — particularly anything that could be construed as pro-Palestinian — you are at risk. The arm’s-length principle — the idea that cultural funding bodies operate independently of government interference — is now little more than an illusion.

Significantly, this decision sparked unprecedented internal revolt. In a remarkable display of staff resistance, over 100 Creative Australia employees confronted CEO Adrian Collette and chair, Robert Morgan in a two-hour meeting. Staff directly challenged their leadership positions and questioned their fitness to lead Australia’s principal arts investment and advisory body. This internal uprising — rare in the typically reserved cultural sector — demonstrates that many within these institutions recognise the dangerous precedent being set and are willing to resist it.

The future of cultural freedom: A defining moment for Australia

McCarthyism was a catastrophic moment in American history – one that saw careers ruined, public discourse poisoned, and artistic integrity crushed under the weight of ideological policing. It took decades for American cultural institutions to recover from the damage, and even now, the scars remain. We do not need, nor should we accept, such a chapter in Australia’s history.

This is not simply about political correctness, nor is it about avoiding offence or placating influential pressure groups. It is about the fundamental role of cultural institutions in a democratic society. Do we want our galleries, theatres, and literary spaces to be places where ideas can be debated, where difficult conversations can occur, and where art challenges power? Or do we want them to become echo chambers for the safest, most anodyne expressions of culture or where the strongest political force rules – spaces where artists and curators self-censor before a single word is spoken or a single image is seen?

Australia’s cultural institutions are at a crossroads. Will they succumb to external pressure, silencing voices that challenge prevailing orthodoxies? Or will they reaffirm their commitment to creative freedom, intellectual integrity, and artistic courage? The choices they make now will define the cultural landscape of this country for years to come.

Cultural McCarthyism in Australia is not theoretical – it is happening in real time, and it is suffocating the very institutions meant to champion creative freedom. The only way forward is to resist, vocally and unapologetically. Otherwise, the cultural landscape of this country will be dictated not by artists and audiences, but by those who seek to control the boundaries of acceptable thought.

https://johnmenadue.com/cultural-mccarthyism-in-australia-the-new-battleground-for-artistic-freedom/

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

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