Federal Budget 2025-26: Visual Arts overlooked

The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) acknowledges the Albanese Government’s efforts to ease cost-of-living pressures in the 2025–26 Federal Budget. However, this budget offers no new support to help the visual arts sector respond to its ongoing financial and workforce challenges. 

The budget’s only direct new arts funding measure is a one-year, $8.6 million extension of the Revive Live program, exclusively supporting Australia’s live music venues and festivals. While this is a valuable investment in the music sector, there is no comparable support for the visual arts.

“This budget represents a missed opportunity to address the financial and workforce challenges facing the visual arts sector,” said Penelope Benton, Executive Director of NAVA. “Artists remain among the most precariously employed workers in the country. While NAVA welcomes continued support for live music and broader cost-of-living measures, we urge the government to deliver comprehensive, equitable support for all art forms in future budgets.”

“Structural issues that the ongoing Revive policy aims to address, including income insecurity, limited career progression, and lack of access to superannuation, remain unaddressed.” 

The budget neglects critical funding needs across visual arts infrastructure, workforce, and long-term sector sustainability. Of particular concern is the continued lack of investment in First Nations visual arts workforce development, including the already under-resourced Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support (IVAIS) program – an initiative essential for First Nations artists and organisations to thrive.

Amidst persistent cost-of-living pressures, NAVA continues to advocate for:

• Sustainable incomes and equitable working conditions for artists and arts workers.
• Tax reform to exempt arts grants, fellowships, and prizes from taxation.
• Removal of the $40,000 cap on non-arts income for legitimate business expense claims under Non-Commercial Loss provisions.
• Superannuation eligibility on all forms of artist income.
• Stronger support for small-to-medium organisations and First Nations-led initiatives.

This budget responds to rising cost-of-living pressures and a slowing global economy. NAVA acknowledges the government’s efforts to ease financial pressure on low- and middle-income earners through modest income tax relief and proposed student debt reforms, which may bring some relief to artists and arts workers, including:

• A staged reduction of the income tax rate between $18,201 and $45,000—falling from 16% to 15% in 2026–27, and to 14% the following year.
• A 20% automatic reduction of outstanding HELP (HECS) debt from 1 June 2025.
• An increase in the HELP repayment threshold to $51,550.

We also welcome continued support for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Languages Policy Partnership. 

NAVA echoes broader community concern that this budget fails to lift those most affected by poverty and housing insecurity, particularly people on income support. As Senator David Pocock noted, “leaving people below the poverty line is a political choice”. Many artists, especially early-career and independent practitioners, are among those impacted.

“The visual arts sector continues to deliver significant cultural, social, and economic value to communities across the country,” emphasised Benton. “As the government invests in Australia’s economic future through clean energy, infrastructure and housing, we urge them to recognise the visual arts as equally fundamental to this national vision.”

NAVA calls for a more comprehensive and equitable approach to arts funding that recognises the essential contributions of all art forms and the people and organisations that shape and sustain them. This approach would ensure a vibrant, diverse cultural environment that benefits artists and audiences nationwide.