05 April, 2012

A Sad, Sad Day For Queensland Writers



I live in the state of Queensland in Australia. I haven't always, until four years ago I had lived my entire life in the capital of Australia - Canberra. (NOT Sydney!) I have never regretted my move to Qld. I love the weather and the lifestyle.

 The place I am lucky enough to live.

Recently we had state elections which saw the Labor party defeated by the National Liberal Party for the first time in over 20 years. Our new Premier is a man called Campbell Newman, and yesterday, he announced the axing of the Premier's Literary Award. Yes our state is in debt, but this is a grand saving of around $250,000. As Nick Earls (a prominent Australian author) points out on his blog, this will reduce our debt by 0.00028%. Zero point zero zero zero two eight percent. Unfortunately I believe the cost to our arts community will be much higher - a price I'm sure Queenslander's cannot afford.

Nick Earls blog post on it can be found here. Well worth the read.