As part of a $217 million tourism sector boost, WA Labor have committed to an initial $50 million seed funding investment in an Aboriginal Cultural Centre on Derbal Yerrigan (Swan river) if they are re-elected in March. The entire package breaks down as follows:

• $50 million for an Aboriginal Cultural Centre to be located near the Swan River (Derbarl Yerrigan)
• $20 million Aboriginal Tourism Fund to make Western Australia the premier destination for Aboriginal tourism
• $50 million to expand the McGowan Government’s Aboriginal Ranger Program
• $97 million to fund tourism infrastructure upgrades across Perth and the regions

Labor argues:
"The comprehensive plan for tourism provides funding certainty for events and destination marketing, new tourism offerings, expanded Aboriginal Rangers Program and tourism infrastructure upgrades, creating more than 460 local construction jobs. The $217 million investment as part of this plan will help grow domestic tourism and prepare WA for international tourism opportunities, when possible in a COVID safe environment."
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The WA Labor McGowan government has announced that if re-elected at the upcoming state election, they will fund the development of a $100 million film studio complex at Fremantle's Victoria Quay. In addition, a promised $20 million production attraction fund has been welcomed by industry. Industry peak body Screenwest have called the announcements 'game-changing' and local industry stakeholders anticipate the size of the screen workforce in WA doubling as a result of the proposals. 
A commitment has been made to ensure a broad definition of 'screen' is maintained in the development of the lot at Victoria Quay, and that games development, and virtual and augmented reality technology businesses will also have access to the facilities.

Read more in the industry news magazine IF
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With a theme of WA Technology: Diversifying our economy & caring for our community, the 30th INCITE Awards is now open. Online submissions for local innovation across six product categories are open from Tuesday 16 February 2021 until midnight (AWST) Friday 9 April 2021. 
The INCITE Awards is WA’s longest running Tech Awards Program (since 1991) and the premier event in ICT for WA. The program aims to showcase and support ICT innovators in WA through an Awards system that will place their tech on the national & global map. Every year, the INCITE Awards receive hundreds of entries from tech innovators across all ages and industry sectors. The program involves a mentored pitch fest, judging presentation & masterclasses by WA’s industry’s finest, an Awards gala event, and a national / international pathway for selected entries.

Read more and enter the awards

SkillsIQ, at the direction of the Sport and Recreation Industry Reference Committee (IRC), is undertaking a thorough update of Fitness qualifications packaged within the SIS Sport and Recreation Training Package. 

If you work in the fitness industry, provide fitness training or manage people in the fitness and/or aquatic exercise industry, we would appreciate your views, thoughts and suggestions on Draft 2. 

Draft 2 of the Fitness qualifications, skill sets, units of competency and their associated assessment requirements will be open for public validation from Wednesday, 10 February to Wednesday, 03 March 2021. 

Arts Matters, launched on 15th February 2021, is the new advocacy platform for the Chamber of Arts and Culture WA representing over 700 organisations and individuals.
In 2018/2019 the creative industries contributed approximately $3.3 billion to the WA economy generating an estimated $175.9 million in exports. However, over the last five years Government investment in the combined arts and sports portfolio was an average of 0.8% of the total general government services, which the Chamber argues is not sufficient to ensure that the sector can survive and thrive:
"The impact of COVID-19 on the Western Australian arts and culture sector has been devastating and the road to recovery will be long. The COVID crisis has also brought to the fore, longer term trends and issues that have been impacting the sector. Changes in economy, technology and society have been challenging arts organisations to think closely about how they make work, connect with audiences and run businesses.  More people want access to arts and cultural experiences and there are more opportunities to deliver this. But at the same time, government investment in the sector is declining - why?
Like other sectors of the economy, government investment should support transformation, innovation and capacity building in order to realise the potential within Western Australia’s creative sector."

Visit the Arts Matters website and get involved

PwC Skills for Australia have released new cross-sectoral training products for review.

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused significant disruption to organisations across the economy, negatively impacting the mental health of many people in the workforce. With major disruption likely to occur more frequently, this project involves developing a new skill set and one new unit of competency to equip learners with the skills and knowledge to contribute to managing the mental health impacts of organisational disruption.

PwC Skills for Australia invite you to review the draft skill set and newly developed unit of competency and provide feedback via a Google form as they seek to refine these training products. FutureNow's stakeholders are also invited to get in touch with their relevant Industry Development Manager to provide feedback.

​Feedback may be provided until close-of-business Friday 19th February, 2021.

Download draft training products
Provide feedback directly to PwC Skills for Australia

The latest round of the Regional and Remote Festivals Fund has provided a financial boost to eight regional organisations to deliver arts and cultural activities at regional festivals in Western Australia.
The Regional and Remote Festivals Fund is part of the Regional Arts and Cultural Investment Program (RACIP). It is open to groups, organisations or individual artists, WA regional local government authorities and Aboriginal communities to support the costs associated with delivering arts activity that is part of a festival in regional Western Australia. 
Initiatives receiving grants through the program are:

1. Esperance Community Arts for the Kaddatji Nyungar Boodja Community Sculpture project which will be displayed at the Esperance Wildflower Festival in September 2021;
2. City of Greater Geraldton for the artistic program behind the Big Sky Festival 2021;
3. Shire of Yalgoo’s Open Air Sculpture Gallery, part of the Emu Festival 2021;
4. Shire of Mount Magnet for SciArt & Astro-Photography Activities, drawing on local Indigenous artists and culminating in an Astro-Photography Exhibition;
5. York Arts and Events for presentation of the 7th annual York Festival;
6. Shire of Merredin for War Stories Illumination Projections, part of the inaugural Memorial Festival;
7. Big hART Inc for Songs for Peace 2021, a month-long series of events featuring song writing workshops, community feasting and intimate acoustic performances; and
8. Annette Nykiel for the We Must Get Together Sometime exhibition and related events.

 
Media statement 
More information

The Australia Institute's Centre for the Future of Work has released a new paper assessing likely impacts of the Federal government's proposed changes to industrial relations laws, put forward in the Omnibus Industrial Relations Bill,. The Institute argues that the Bill will accelerate non-union enterprise agreements and drive down real wages. The Institute states:
"The federal government’s omnibus Industrial Relations bill proposes sweeping changes to labour laws which will generally enhance the power of employers to hire workers on a just-in-time basis, and will put further downward pressure on Australian wages (already growing at a record-low rate). One outcome of the bill will be an acceleration of enterprise agreements (EAs) written unilaterally by employers..."
Read more and download the report