“In John Howard’s Australia, libraries, museums, theatres and orchestras are on the same list as ports and roads and hospitals – traditional institutions, and necessary parts of the civic fabric. To understand what’s happened under Howard to the arts in general and theatre in particular – the odd mix of generosity and meanness, celebration and indifference, abuse and support – it’s best to keep in mind the lessons learnt in the kafuffle over the orchestras: that the bedrock arts policy of the Howard Government is not support for the arts – it’s support for arts institutions. Big, traditional institutions. And in the way we understand these things in Australia – let’s not talk of what’s possible in Europe – the big traditional arts companies are flourishing under John Howard as never before.”