FSP submission to National Cultural Policy
In 2026, Australians were invited to share their views and help guide the next National Cultural Policy. Prompted especially by concerns about resurgent attacks on freedom of creative and intellectual expression, the Friendly Street committee felt it was imperative to ensure the recognition of poetry’s significance in Australia’s cultural policy. Our submission was the result and was endorsed by various other poets and Friendly Street alumni, including Dr Susan O’Brien and Mike Ladd, who also made individual submissions of their own.
The submission by Friendly Street Poets can be read here in both its original form (hosted on the National Cultural Policy’s submissions page) and with a minor amendment emphasising the late Stephen Lawrence’s remarks about poetry’s ‘lowly’ yet advantageous role within the wider literary sphere.… Click for more
