The politics of the Creative Australia controversy reveal a trend that ultimately weakens institutions

It started with a burst of exuberance in late January two years ago: a move to shake up, modernise and expand the reach of federal government support for the arts. The decision was taken in the interests of "social cohesion" after two works by Sabsabi, almost two decades ago, came to the attention of Creative Australia. How the decision to dump Khaled Sabsabi unfolded Photo shows A man standing in front of a blue painting smiles gently Creative Australia's chair warned if he did not act with urgency to dump artist Khaled Sabsabi from representing the nation at the Venice Biennale, the agency would risk being swept away by a "tidal wave" of controversy. "Creative Australia is an advocate for freedom of artistic expression and is not an adjudicator on the interpretation of art," the Creative Australia board said in a statement on February 14 after it had overturned the original decision "However, the board believes a prolonged and divisive debate about the 2026 selection outcome poses an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia's artistic community and could undermine our goal of bringing Australians together through art and creativity." Creative Australia chief executive Adrian Collette told Senate estimates he felt "very strongly" the artistic community's concern.