No basic income for Australian artists, but some writers can live in reduced rent accommodation

14 April 2026

Ireland pays a select group of artists a basic income for a three year period, an initiative the Irish government claims is a world first.

At present, the weekly value of the payment equates to about five-hundred-and-forty Australian dollars. You’d be hard pressed to live on that sort of money in Australia, but it’s better than nothing, considering no such scheme exists locally.

But there is a glimmer of hope. For some local creatives at least. The NSW state government is offering writers the opportunity to rent terrace houses in The Rocks area of Sydney, for two-hundred dollars (Australian) per week.

Spots are limited, and creatives still need a source of income, but the initiative is a (small) step in the right direction. To be eligible, a writer must be considered to be a literature practitioner:

In this instance, ‘Literature Practitioners’ are defined as: writers working in any creative form, including fiction, short stories, screenplay/drama, poetry, children’s books, and narrative non-fiction, and illustrators working in children’s books and graphic novels. The Program is open to NSW Literature Practitioners at any stage of their career.