It's worth $31 billion and is a lot of fun.
Australia's creative economy has powered through the economic lows and highs of the past 20 years to achieve a growth rate about double that of the economy as a whole, a report card by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Creative Industries and Innovation (CCI), based at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), reveals.
CCI director and QUT academic Distinguished Professor Stuart Cunningham released the Creative Economy Report Card today to coincide with the creative3 international conference in Brisbane this week (April 14-16).
The conference, presented by QUT Creative Enterprise Australia, features the Academy Award-winning director of Harvie Krumpet, Adam Elliot, and Gruen Transfer panellist Russel Howcroft alongside a host of entrepreneurs and innovative industry leaders to discuss how creativity can further power Australian business.
Professor Cunningham said Australia's creative economy employed nearly half a million workers, which was 5.3 per cent of the nation's workforce, and generated 7 per cent of Australia's earnings.
"It is one of the largest workforces in the economy," Professor Cunningham said.
"It is as mainstream as mining, manufacturing, retail and farming, and is now recognised around the world as a key element in national economic performance, employment, education and creativity."
The creative sector includes advertising and marketing, architecture, design and visual arts, film, TV and radio, music and performing arts, publishing, software and digital content.
Professor Cunningham said the creative economy was worth $31.1 billion (in 2007/08), employed 487,000 individuals, contributed 155,000 registered businesses, of which 60 per cent were sole trader enterprises, and had shown long-term growth rates of 5.8 per cent per annum over the past twenty years, roughly double those of the economy as a whole.
He said the sector's trade balance was a deficit of about two-to-one, leaving plenty of scope to expand Australian creative exports to offset the high level of creative content currently being imported.
The Creative Economy Report Card, the first in a regular series analysing the dynamics and contribution of the creative sector, will be launched today ahead of creative3, held at QUT this week and featuring speakers:
- Michael Lynch, CBE, AM, board member of the ABC and former CEO of Sydney Opera House
- Russel Howcroft panel member of Gruen Transfer and chairman of George Pattersons Y&R
- Adam Elliot, Academy Award-winning director of Harvie Krumpet
- Graeme Wood founder of Wotif.com
- Margaret Manning, CEO Reading Room and Female Entrepreneur of the Year (Fast Growth Business Awards)
- Ruth Drinkwater, CEO Australian Association of Angel Investors Ltd.
The conference will be held at The Block, Z3, QUT Creative Industries Precinct, cnr Kelvin Grove Road and Musk Avenue, Kelvin Grove. For more information, visit www.creative3.com.au.
During the conference, on April 16, the book The QUT Creative Industries Experience will be launched at the special one-day symposium, Building the Creative Environment: Perspectives from China and East Asia, which brings together leading scholars, practitioners and urban design consultants from QUT and from Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan.
The book will share insights to help other countries and organisations build creative industry hubs.
Media contact: Rachael Wilson, QUT media officer, 07 3138 1150 or rachael.wilson@qut.edu.au.
