I am cautiously optimistic about the return of the artist as worker. Legislated fair pay, workplace safety, collective bargaining, public value, and yes, access to unemployment benefits offer a steady way forward for a troubled sector. It’s no surprise that more radical plans for a post-work utopia are not in Labor’s sights: it remains our (essential) work to imagine them.

The arts community advocates for change through the work we make and the stories we share. Many of us have or are developing environmental impact policies. We cannot accept sponsorship arrangements that are so out of keeping with our values. We call on the Botanic Gardens to end the sponsorship agreement with Santos immediately and to develop a comprehensive policy to ensure that fossil fuel companies will never again benefit from an association with our beautiful Museum or any aspect of the Gardens.

These Books+Publishing surveys capture important and otherwise invisible data about the true conditions of the book industry, which is notorious for keeping salaries and profits private for the sake of ‘competitive advantage’.

The proposed Liveable Income Guarantee is a strong step towards eradicating poverty, and artists should support it. Poverty sucks, and besides, the more people that can afford to buy books and art, come to shows, and make work, the better. But we need to be more imaginative, more ambitious. We can and should be calling for a massive and urgent restructuring of our social priorities, the ways we measure value, and the way everybody works.

The new report on arts governance highlights a number of themes. The marvellous things our organisations achieve are made possible by small teams of dedicated, passionate (underpaid) arts workers – most of them women. Their already-stretched resources are being asked to stretch further. Our sector is overly dependent on the support of volunteers, who are often ill equipped to provide the support we really need. And the people who have traditionally filled those volunteer roles are becoming less inclined to do so over time.

But as the past few months have demonstrated, there is nobody more equipped to jump into action in a crisis than independent artists, a group who’ve become expert at making do with rapidly dwindling resources, turning sawdust into glitter.

The existence of systemic or structural barriers in the arts has compounded a self-defeatism that many minority artists experience – the sense of not being talented or qualified enough to take on artistic opportunities, including leadership roles. We are just not used to seeing ourselves in such positions, as the decision makers, as people self-determined to confidently project our value.

Access and sustainability go hand in hand. The harder it gets to sustain a career in the arts, the more we will only see work made by the young and privileged, and a narrow band of established artists who slot easily into funded or commercial success.

It is not my intention to question the value of artists’ residencies – there is absolutely no point in arguing against the clear advantage of offering ‘time out’ from the demands of daily life to otherwise time-strapped writers – only to raise the question lingering in Machado’s story: who is ‘cut out’ for the artist’s residency, and what does it say about your artistry if you cannot hack the enforced solitude of such now-commonplace retreats?

In the wake of Invasion Day 2018, two works – Warwick Thornton’s Sweet Country and Richard Lewer’s exhibition The History of Australia ­– highlight Australia’s desperate and increasing need to confront its foundations. Here are two art projects that swipe and paw at Australia’s historical consciousness and demand that we do better.

The Australian game industry’s reaction to the government response has been primarily one of frustration. While many senate inquiries receive no response at all, and the Abbott and Turnbull governments have never shown interest in supporting Australian videogame developers, the response nevertheless disappointed a burgeoning industry that has long struggled for recognition.