Analysis shows that during the first phase of JobKeeper (April–September 2020), more than half of all employees and businesses in cultural and creative sectors received JobKeeper payments.
The Australian Government provided more than $10 billion in wage and cash flow support to the country's creative and cultural sectors during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to analysis released by the Bureau of Communications, Arts and Regional Research (BCARR).
The analysis estimates that employees and businesses in cultural and creative sectors received $10.7 billion from the Government to support their operations, including $8 billion in JobKeeper payments between April and December 2020, and $2.7 billion in Boosting Cash Flow for Employers payments to early February 2021.
If cultural and creative activity continued to grow as it was since 2018–19, it would have amounted to $122 billion in 2020–21. The Government's investment in whole‑of‑economy supports represents 8.8 per cent of this total.
These whole‑of‑economy measures were supplemented by the Creative Economy COVID support package which now stands at $475 million, up from an original $250 million in 2020.
Read the fact sheet—Government payments to the cultural and creative sectors.