For Australia’s classical music institutions and those who purport to support them, 2005 was a year of standing pat and avoiding the hard debates about the future, says Peter McCallum. Orchestras which are unedeniably artistically vibrant seem at a loss when asked to describe their future, and the federal government first proposed, then backed off a plan for combining struggling ensembles and streamlining business plans. “In music, dissent is not the primary issue but the art form needs challenging work and it is not legislation that keeps this in short supply but a mood of risk avoidance and self-censorship.”