The Victorian Budget for 2026-27, handed down this week, included $81.1 million in initiatives to back the creative industries, with $4.5 million for contemporary music programs.
Of good news was the return of Music Works, which was removed from last year’s Budget.
It provides between $5,000 to $20,000 to artists and industry professionals across all genres and career stages to undertake projects with creative and/or commercial outcomes. It has been notably important for the First Nations music community and artists and executives with disabilities and deafness.
Other contemporary music programs getting support in the new Budget were songwriting in schools and the Victorian Music Development Office (VMDO).
Peak music association Music Victoria called this “a positive outcome” as it had been advocating for a continuation of these.
But it maintained this funding was short-term support for artists and industry development, more “a stabilisation measure rather than structural support. The underlying challenges across the music sector remain, particularly at the grassroots and mid-tier levels where artists and the workforce are developed.”
Music Victoria CEO Fiona Duncan explained: “This funding keeps important programs in place but it’s a short term fix. Artists must be at the centre, with long term investment in them and the system around them, from venues as vital cultural infrastructure to the workforce powering the music ecosystem.”
Touring
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In addition, $1.2 million has been set aside in 2026-27 to support regional touring initiatives, “giving Victorians access to a diverse range of creative events and opportunities wherever they live, and providing opportunities for Victorian artists and creative organisations to expand their audiences and showcase their work.”
Funding will also support the delivery of a Victorian contemporary music strategy, an action of the Creative State 2028 program.
Over the next four years, $7.1 million will be diverted to increase support for the maintenance and activation of state-owned cultural facilities.
$12.1 million is set aside in 2026-27 for infrastructure upgrades to Hamer Hall. The 2,500-seater hosts national and international artists across jazz, rock, pop, multicultural, chamber, classical, cabaret, and contemporary music.
On its slate are shows by Boy & Bear (May 15th), John Williamson (22nd), Thee Sacred Souls (31st) Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells (June 3rd), TR/ST (4th), Seun Kuti & Egypt 80 (5th), and La La Land In Concert (6th & 8th).
Over two years, $29 million is allocated to support the operations of the Melbourne Arts Precinct Transformation Project and manage disruption during construction. These include a new gallery, significant upgrades to Arts Centre Melbourne’s Theatres Building, and a new 18,000 square metre urban garden.
Musicians, songwriters, and composers could benefit from the $27.2 million over two years to attract new international screen productions to Victoria, supporting employment across film, television, visual effects, animation, and games.
There is $22.8 million to attract world-standard events and conferences to Melbourne and regional Victoria, including support for the Nyaal Banyul Geelong Convention and Event Centre, due to open this year.
These initiatives are in addition to Creative Victoria’s core operational funding and funding already allocated through previous State Budgets. In 2026-27, the total budget allocated to the creative industries portfolio totals more than $650 million.
For a wider read of the Budget, go to the website of Victoria’s Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry & Regions.
With the Victorian State Election coming up in November, the music sector will work with all parties to give contemporary music priority.
Among them are Music Victoria which says, “We will continue to advocate for sustained, long term investment in artists and the system around them, including venues and the full pipeline of music activity, to keep Victoria the engine room of Australian music.”
An opinion piece published on the ArtsHub website challenged the new Creative Industries Minister, Vicki Ward, to reverse funding cuts to the arts. These included eight associations which have “already been fully defunded” and warned more faced a similar destiny.
In March the State Government announced the third round of its Live Music Festivals Fund, after earlier editions provided lifelines for Echuca-Moama’s Riverboats, Queenscliff Music, and Port Fairy Folk Festivals alongside newer events like Bulleen’s Gateway and First Peoples event Our Survival Day.
This piece of content has been assisted by the Australian Government through Music Australia and Creative Australia, its arts funding and advisory body
