Legislative reform is essential to secure artists’ futures

For decades, artists have worked under conditions that make it difficult to sustain a career, despite the cultural, educational, and economic value of their work. In 2001, NAVA’s Visual Arts Industry Guidelines Research Project laid the groundwork for change, leading to the development of the Code of Practice for Visual Arts, Craft and Design and proposals for sector-wide policy and legal reform.

While public funding remains important, a growing body of evidence shows that sustainable careers depend on more than grants alone. As shown in A New Approach (ANA)’s recent report, Government, Culture and Creativity: It’s about more than just funding, lasting outcomes require a mix of regulatory, financial, and structural interventions. The visual arts sector cannot thrive without these supports embedded in law and policy.

NAVA’s ongoing advocacy calls for long overdue tax and superannuation reforms that recognise art as work and support the financial sustainability of artists’ careers. These include:

• Making government grants, art prizes, and fellowships tax-free
• Exempting artists from the Non-Commercial Loss (NCL) rules that penalise artists with secondary incomes
• Ensuring superannuation is paid on all artist fees

These changes would bring tax and employment policy into line with the reality of how artists generate income across multiple streams. They would also reduce the harsh tax treatment of publicly funded opportunities that should support, not diminish, artistic practice. 

As ANA’s report highlights, achieving real outcomes in the arts requires more than just investment. It requires legal and regulatory frameworks that enable artists to sustain their work and livelihoods. Just as businesses receive offsets to innovate, artists deserve consistent tax settings that recognise the public value of their work. ANA’s report asserts that government policy should reduce, not entrench, income precarity for cultural workers.

A key part of this reform is ensuring that superannuation is paid on all artist fees. This is a simple but crucial step toward securing artists’ retirement and aligning the sector with basic entitlements already afforded in other industries.

ANA’s report recommends learning from broader research and development (R&D) policy settings, where creative research, like other forms of innovation, is encouraged through tax and regulatory support, not discouraged by outdated rules. 

NAVA expands on these recommendations in a separate article focused on tax reform for artists, calling for changes to the way art prizes, grants, and income from creative practice are treated under current tax law. These proposals are designed to ensure that public investment in artists is not undermined by systems that erode its impact.

Many artists undertake residencies as part of their professional development, often unpaid and self-funded. These periods of intensive research and experimentation are central to creating new work, building networks, and expanding practice. Yet unlike other sectors, they are ineligible for tax offsets or deductible business expenses for these R&D activities. NAVA continues to propose that living cost deductions be made available to artists undertaking residencies up to 12 months, recognising them as legitimate professional activities. This would offer a targeted, scalable way to support sustained creative work without requiring a grant application.

ANA also highlights the need for a proactive approach to the ethical use of AI in creative fields. NAVA has consistently called for consent, attribution, and remuneration for the use of artists’ work in AI training datasets. Without appropriate safeguards, artists risk having their work extracted, manipulated, or monetised without acknowledgement or compensation. Legislative protections must ensure that human creators remain respected and protected in a rapidly evolving digital environment.

Public investment remains vital, but funding alone cannot address the conditions that make careers in the arts so precarious. NAVA is calling for the establishment of Visual Arts Australia, a new, expert-led board within Creative Australia to provide strategic direction, national leadership, and visibility for visual arts, craft, and design. It would align the sector with Music Australia and Writing Australia.

The evidence is clear. The policy solutions are ready. What’s needed now is action.

With strong legislative and structural support, including tax and super reform and the creation of Visual Arts Australia, government has the opportunity to create lasting change to ensure artists can work sustainably, securely, and with the recognition they deserve.