A recent review of Australian orchestras was dumped on for its call for reductions. But the report also took to task some current government funding policies that work contrary to the interests of efficient arts funding. “The existing system is poor public policy because it encourages short-term, knee-jerk reactions rather than considered, long-term planning. It makes proper governance very difficult for the boards of the affected organisations, which find themselves in a constant state of siege. And it means that arts ministers are constantly put in a mendicant position in relation to their cabinet colleagues.”