Multiple protests have arisen on the Mornington Peninsula in response to the local council’s 2025-26 budget, which cut all $480,000 of arts funding.

Other cuts include $105,000 from the Willum Warrain Indigenous charity and $160,000 from the Climate Action Grant. 

At council meetings on May 20 and June 3, hundreds of local activists, artists and creatives gathered in protest. 

Flinders Fringe Festival co-founder Melissa Jackson said the cuts will impact the festival’s future operations. 

“To cut it now when all this good positive work has happened … I don’t understand,” Jackson said. 

“If we don’t have council support, we would need to do things differently or maybe we would need to have a smaller offering.” 

Jackson said that the protests have involved music and dance as well as silent vigils demonstrating “what it is like without the arts.”

“Everybody wants to be respectful more than disruptive when we advocate, but we want to get the point across really, that we are important,” she said. 

Councillor David Gill said the council often struggles with balancing community priorities, as a low-taxing council dealing with costs shifting from State Government. 

“The Mornington Peninsula Shire has the eight-lowest rates in Victoria: 79 councils, eighth-lowest,” Gill said. 

“We are basically at the stage now where we are maintaining old buildings instead of building new ones.”

Janet Street, a local activist said the council’s cuts to Indigenous and environmental funding were not good enough. She left the June 3 council meeting early in frustration.