Speech to the Creative State Summit

It’s great to be here today at the Creative State Summit, to talk about

ideas around the critical importance of creativity.

Creativity is something I’m passionate about – I’m absolutely convinced

that creativity is a key that can unlock a new era of prosperity in this

nation …. if we are brave and seize the opportunity.

Since last year, I’ve been arguing for the establishment of a Creativity

Commission in Australia … to provide a focus for our leaders and other

policy makers in driving a new creativity agenda.

More about that later.

But firstly I want to talk you back 113 years.

To Boxing Day 1906, to be exact.

Around a kilometre and a half down the hill from here, Melbourne Town

Hall was filled to the rafters for the World Premiere of what would

become known as the world’s first feature film, the locally-made Story of

the Kelly Gang.

Imagine the scene.

Huge, raucous audiences, many of whom had to stand to get a look,

were in raptures over the silent film, which was accompanied by

dialogue from actors positioned behind the screen and thundering real

life sound effects approximating hoofbeats and gunshots.

The film went on to tour Australia, New Zealand and England, making a

huge profit for its backers.

It should have been the beginning of a golden era in Australian

creativity. The moment we invented a new genre of filmmaking – the

bushranger film – and became the screen capital of the world.

Yet today it stands as a cautionary tale of squandered opportunities.

Shortly after that successful run in Melbourne, the Story of the Kelly

Gang was banned after five children in Ballarat, inspired by the film,

broke into photographic studio to steal money, then held up another

group of schoolchildren.

Later, all bushranger films were banned by censors fearful of the moral

impact on the population, effectively stopping Australia’s burgeoning film

industry dead in its tracks.

America stepped into the vacuum created by our short-sightedness and

started pumping out their own ‘bushranger’ films … and the Western

was born.

Tragically, the film has now been largely lost to history – only a quarter

of it has been restored from fragments discovered by chance.

Of course this would not happen today. We place much greater value on

our cultural assets. This fantastic Summit is proof of that.

Yet this story points to a worrying historical tendency in our national

psyche … to turn away from creativity when the going gets tough.

As I told the Press Club in a speech last year, I’m concerned that we are

facing a ‘creative economy deficit’ if we don’t embrace creativity as a key

driver of prosperity and national wellbeing.

Australia is the world’s 13th largest economy and a member of the G20.

But we’re going backwards.

According to PwC’s The World in 2050 report, Australia is projected to

drop to 28th place by 2050, which equates to swapping places with the

Philippines. That means we’ll be out of the G20 and most other global

elite economic clubs.

All the data points to a simple truth: we’re just not growing fast enough ...

and our old ways of creating growth are becoming less productive.

Relying on our natural assets to fuel our prosperity is vital and will

remain so. But it’s no longer enough. We have to move up the value

chain.

And to do that, we need to find ways to better harness our intellectual

and creative capacity.

The good news is that, throughout its history, Australia has actually been

fertile ground for ideas that change the world.

Almost without realizing it, we have defied geography and population

size to make creativity one of our most important cultural assets.

Australians have shown they are good at creating new things that impact

societies and economies in deep, lasting ways.

Our First Peoples have created the oldest unbroken tradition of art in the

world.

Our scientists invented WiFi, unleashing a new era of connectivity across

the planet.

Today, local tech firm Atlassian, which makes collaboration tools for

software developers, strides the world stage with a $30 billion valuation.

Overall, creative thinking is a big contributor to the economy. The ABS

estimates the creative sector adds an astonishing $86.7 billion to GDP

each year.

Here in Victoria, the State Government has estimated that creative

industries account for almost eight per cent of our economy, which

equates to $23 billion annually, in addition to 220,000 jobs.

That’s why the Creative State strategy is a great start, with investment in

40 action items being really impressive.

I support this investment in backing creative talent, strengthening the

creative industry ecosystem, delivering social impact, economic impact,

increased participation, increased access, and international

engagement.

Yet as we enter a fourth global industrial revolution – fueled by disruptive

technological forces such as artificial intelligence, robotics and the

Internet of Things – we as Australians are at a crossroads.

In responding to this, we can turn away from creativity and seek refuge in

the past and, in doing that, risk exposing huge sections of the current

workforce to the harsh insecurity of a future where many of today’s jobs

simply won’t exist.

Or we can see the potential for Australia’s creative spirit to become one

of its most powerful economic weapons.

We can realise that a workforce that embraces creativity and embeds it

in all its practices is more likely to thrive in the new economy.

If the right decisions are made now, our creativity can drive Australia’s

future prosperity, making us better prepared for a rapidly changing global

economy.

Happier.

More productive.

And less likely to be replaced by robots.

If we look at the shift in the Fortune 500 companies over the last decade,

versus the relatively static ASX, we see Australian companies haven’t

embraced the pivot to creativity.

Some Australian companies, like the creative dynamos at Atlassian, are

ahead of the curve and reaping the rewards.

We need more Atlassians. We need to build confidence in our own

creativity as a nation. And we need to back ourselves – something which

bizarrely Australians are not great at.

We have many positive stories in Australia, but my fear is many still think

creativity belongs in the sandpit and not on the spreadsheet. Creativity

needs to become central to the national agenda. We need to recognise it

as an economic word … a hard word, a commercial word.

I believe that creativity can, and should be one of our most significant

drivers of future growth and competitiveness.

So now, as we shift from an industrial-age economy to an ideas-based

one, we need to ask ourselves: are we doing enough?

Are we positioning ourselves for a world in which ideas and intellectual

property are the new global currency?

Are we investing in, empowering and harnessing creativity across our

entire economy – not just the arts – but in business, in schools, in

communities and public policy?

The reality is that right now, in terms of a Creativity Economy, our books

just aren’t balancing up.

We’re in deficit.

If we do more now to recognise, nourish and invest in creativity, we can

turn this trend around to create a better, more prosperous future.

Now when we talk about ‘creativity’, I’m not just confining this to ‘creative

industries’, which include everything from filmmaking to architecture,

media and advertising.

I’m also talking about creative practices in other industries, like the

changing role of service design across all sectors.

I like to think about creativity in terms of the ‘three C’s’.

The small ‘c’.

The professional ‘c’.

And the Big ‘C’.

The small ‘c’ is the creativity we have in all of us; that innate desire to

make and create things, from tinkering in the back shed, to creating an

experience for a loved one.

The professional ‘c’ is the creativity we employ in our working lives, to

eek out a living. We often forget that creating spreadsheets or business

strategies are still acts of creativity.

And the Big ‘C’ is the creativity that shifts cultural paradigms and

changes us forever. It’s Jorn Utzon taking out a pencil to draw sails on a

new Sydney Opera House, or Barry Humphries first donning a purple

wig and high heels to play Dame Edna.

All three of them have value, because they all demand creative thinking.

That is: actively investing in new ideas, building IP, and finding new

solutions to complex problems.

The problem is, when we think about our own creativity, we often

measure it against those once-in-a-generation creative superfreaks who

perform the acts of Big C Creativity, instead of appreciating the everyday

small ‘c’ creativity that we’re all born with.

I think we just need to better market the concept of creativity to

ourselves. It’s an inherently more saleable proposition than ‘innovation’

which Australians see as being a codeword for ‘job losses’.

Creativity is an inherently positive word – with connotations of making

something from nothing. It provokes a more positive response than the

fuzzy ‘innovation’, as Malcolm Turnbull discovered … to his detriment.

Recently at PwC we undertook a major project to identify what Australia

stands for: ‘our’ nation’s brand.

The research we’ve done is confronting, and would have turned out

differently if Australia did a better job of marketing the idea of creativity

to itself.

The data shows we sell ourselves short through risk aversion, a lack of

ambition and being apologetic on the world stage.

We rely on the beauty of our landscapes and our great lifestyle to sell

us, while we undersell our capacities, our IP and our intelligence. We

need to learn to sell high as well as aim high.

Or, as I like to say, the entire country needs to channel its ‘inner Baz’.

There’s a surprising twist in all this – the rest of the world thinks we’re

more creative than we do.

And why wouldn’t they? We have always punched above our weight

internationally.

WiFi and the Story of the Kelly Gang proves that.

I believe Australian creativity faces significant barriers in the current

environment. These are things like:

? Limited collaboration across sectors and industries.

? A lag in realising the opportunities of digital transformation.

? A lack of focus on the skills required for future work and next-

generation jobs.

? Challenges to the sustainability of creative practice; and

? The limitations of existing policy frameworks and traditional funding

mechanisms in supporting innovation.

Some believe the hard skills of business, science and engineering alone

are the path to a productive and prosperous future.

However, in their 2016 Future of Jobs report, The World Economic

Forum found that:

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution... will cause widespread

disruption, not only to business models but also to labour markets

over the next five years, with enormous change predicted in the

skill sets needed to thrive in the new landscape.”

That same year, CSIRO predicted 44% of Australian jobs are under

threat in the face of this new industrial revolution.

Australia still relies heavily on mining and financial services.

But we know that future generations will be less reliant on technical skills,

and more focussed on attaining ‘soft skills’: resilience, curiosity,

emotional sense, entrepreneurial thinking, vision, empathy, and insight.

All of which are drivers of creativity.

I’m the chair of the Australian Film Television and Radio School (known

as AFTRS), a school that The Hollywood Reporter considers to be one

of the top schools the world.

By the time that AFTRS was founded in 1973, there had been a cultural

drought with precious few Australian feature films made for decades.

As a consequence, it felt odd to hear an Australian accent or see an

Australian landscape on our screens. There was a perception that life –

or at least life worthy of our attention – happened elsewhere.

A few strong voices began calling for change. In 1968, Liberal Prime

Minister John Gorton commissioned a report on the establishment of a

Film and Television School, backed by recommendations from

UNESCO.

A Film Committee made up of a group of believers – Philip Adams, Barry

Jones and Peter Coleman – insisted we needed to back our storytellers

and looked at international film schools as a model. Along the way they

battled many critics and cynics who simply saw it as a waste of public

funds.

Finally, after a lot of lobbying, Gough Whitlam’s Labor Government

passed the AFTRS Act in 1973 and the school was founded.

In the 45 years since, AFTRS graduates have had a transformative

impact on the culture and industry of Australian TV, film and broadcast.

They’ve created stories that have touched the world – from The Piano to

Red Dog to The Slap – fuelling a thriving commercial industry, and

winning universal acclaim from BAFTAs to Oscars.

AFTRS student films have had 300 nominations and awards in

competitive international film festivals.

Outside of the industry itself, films like Crocodile Dundee have radically

influenced trade and tourism. In fact, Deloitte estimates that screen

content attracts around 230,000 international tourists to Australia each

year, generating $725 million in tourism expenditure alone.

Possibly most significant of all, it no longer seems that life worthy of our

attention only happens elsewhere.

In the creative industries, high-flying Australians – including directors,

artists, advertising practitioners and chefs – are world-famous names.

We need to leverage that success in creativity and promote it more

broadly, so that Australian creativity is also synonymous with innovation,

entrepreneurship and business design.

I believe our focus on STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering

and maths – is limiting, particularly when we know other countries are

doing it better than us.

Ironically, the countries in our region who have been recognised for their

investment in STEM are now focusing on creativity, particularly low-cost

labour countries who see automation replacing their workers.

The highly regarded National University of Singapore undertook a

massive research project last year to determine what skills would better

prepare its graduates for the world.

The research indicated that future generations won’t need technical

skills, but rather ‘soft skills’ – resilience, curiosity, emotional sense,

entrepreneurial thinking, vision, empathy and insight.

All of these are drivers of – you guessed it – creativity.

The Economist’s Intelligence Unit recently rated South Korea the best-

equipped country in its Automation Readiness Index, which basically

ranked a country’s preparedness for this changing global economy.

South Korea was top due to its government’s reforms in teacher training

and curriculum and its emphasis on ‘soft skills’. Again, creativity.

We need to expand our focus – from STEM to STEAM. We need to

elevate ‘A’ for Arts, to supercharge our children’s learning across the

whole curriculum.

Kids should be engaging with their creativity alongside their maths and

coding, to feed and extend that vital part of their brains that will equip

them for a future already upon us.

So, now we’ve identified the issue: here’s the opportunity.

First, we take creativity seriously. We train our kids in it. Or rather, we

help them to keep hold of their small ‘c’, which in turn will helping them

nurture and develop professional ‘c’ later on when they enter the

workforce.

And this, in turn, increases the likelihood of Australians producing those

huge acts of Big ‘C’ creativity.

Some of you may already know of the ‘marshmallow challenge’ (not to

be confused with the ‘marshmallow test’) – a simple team-building

exercise where groups of four people are asked to build the tallest

structure they can out of 20 sticks of spaghetti, a metre of tape, a length

of string … and a marshmallow.

Designer Tom Wujec has done some great research into how different

groups perform in the challenge. As he explained in a TED Talk,

architectures and engineers (thankfully) tend to do well, but one of the

worst-performing cohorts is recent graduates of business school.

In observing the different approaches, Wujec thinks part of the problem

is that “business students are trained to find the single right plan”.

What tends to happen is they talk about what they’re going to do, they

jockey for power within the group, they come up with a plan, they

‘execute’ their plan … and then they put the marshmallow on top right at

the end.

At this point, more often than not, their structure falls over.

Another group that does really well at the marshmallow challenge?

Kindergarten kids.

Turns out, small children are really good at iterative design – they build

prototypes as they go, learning lessons and continually integrating these

lessons into their work to improve their structure. The naturally

collaborate, codesign and co-create – the core pillars of creative

learning.

You might have also heard of George Land’s research on creativity from

the 1960s. Dr Land developed a creativity test for NASA, to help select

innovative engineers and scientists.

He identified two types of thinking when it comes to creativity:

convergent thinking: where you judge ideas, criticise them, refine them;

and

divergent thinking: where you imagine new ideas, original ones, different

ones and ones which come from the subconscious.

This second one, divergent thinking – the subconscious, the untested,

the random association – is true creativity.

It’s truly original, lateral and uniquely human. It’s the stuff that robots and

artificial intelligence simply cannot do.

In 1968, Land started applying his research on creativity to children.

He gave his creativity test to 1,600 kids aged from 3 to 5. He then re-

tested the same kids at 10 years of age, and again at 15, and compared

their scores against adults.

The results were staggering:

98 per cent of 5-year-olds were assessed in the ‘highly creative’ range

(at ‘genius’ level)

this dropped to 30 per cent of 10-year-olds

then just 12 per cent of 15-year-olds

... and only 2 per cent of adults who could be considered ‘highly

creative’.

Non-creative thinking, it appears, is a learned behaviour.

The truth is our competition around the world is investing very heavily in

readying their citizens for the ‘idea revolution’.

They are investing heavily in their creativity capability as a means of

gaining a competitive advantage:

Creative Britain has seen the UK look to the Creative Economy with

great success, supported by a mixed funding model for Arts practice

across a number of disciplines

Scotland has just released a new culture strategy that places culture on

an equal footing with education, the environment, health and

inequality

China’s Made in China 2025 policy aims to transition the economy from

a focus on low-cost manufacturing to one that draws on local

innovation and intelligent design to move further up the global value

chain

Indonesia has held the first ever World Conference on the Creative

Economy, and recently established a new non-ministerial institution

called the Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf).

As I mentioned at the start of this speech, I believe Australia’s response

to the challenges and opportunities of the Fourth Industrial Revolution

must be spearheaded by the establishment of a Creativity Commission.

This would embed creativity in our industrial policy, helping Australia to

realise the potential of the creative economy, and to maximise our

creative assets.

This Federal body would be tasked with:

? Supporting the growth of the creative economy by providing advice

to government;

? Building creative capacities and ideas to help inform policy,

initiatives and industry;

? Recognising the interests of the community and how we can use

creativity to facilitate better outcomes for the nation; and

? Supporting the creative development of internationally competitive

Australian businesses.

As is the case with other similar bodies, such as the Productivity

Commission, Commissioners would be appointed from a range of

background to ensure the Commission encompasses diverse viewpoints

– from economists to representatives of the creative arts – helping to

annihilate old barriers and empower businesses across sectors to work

with one another to engage in creative, divergent thinking.

Its activities would be augmented by a Creative Industry Network, made

up of creative industry representatives so the sector can speak with one

voice in advocating and assisting the government of the day with policy

development.

Pleasingly, the idea of focusing on the creative economy as a driver of

prosperity and future-proofing … is gaining among our political leaders.

The Australian Greens has formally adopted the idea as policy.

And the Federal Opposition went to the recent election with a promise to

hold a Creative Economy Summit, as part of a broader Creative

Economy policy.

I’ve spoken to the Victorian Government, which is of course keen for a

Commission, if it were to be established, to be headquartered in

Melbourne.

First we need to find the business case for

the Commission, with a hope it could be established within 18 months.

It’s a tight timeline. But with global economic and technological changes

bearing down on the nation, Australia cannot afford to wait for the world

to overtake us.

Failure to act now will see Australia staring down the barrel of a cultural

drought, a decline in economic growth and, ultimately, the erosion of our

future prosperity.

This national-level intervention will send a powerful message, signalling a

pivot to creativity, and an appreciation of just how vital it is to the future

economic, social and cultural health of Australia.

113 years ago our decision makers made a catastrophic error in banning

the Story of the Kelly Gang, suffocating a new creative industry at birth

because they couldn’t see the big picture.

Today, our leaders are in danger of repeating the sins of the past by

failing to appreciate the economic power of the creativity that exists

within all of us.

Let’s not make that same mistake again.

Let’s turn toward creativity, in all its forms.

Thank you.

May, 2019