News · Council · Newcastle

Newcastle’s cultural plan sets 12 measures of success. One has a number, and it matches the plan’s own forecast

City of Newcastle’s Cultural Plan 2026-2036, adopted unanimously on 28 July, lists three measures of success for each of its four pillars. One has a number and a date: 1,200 additional creative jobs by 2036. The plan’s own economic appendix forecasts about that much growth anyway. Of the other eleven, four are things the council can deliver or not, and seven say only which way something should move, from no stated starting point and by no stated date.

The Hunter Ledger · 5 October 2026 · 7 primary sources, read 5 October 2026

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The short answer. A resident in 2030 could check five of the twelve: whether a floorspace study, new cultural space in the renewal precincts, a microgrants trial and new event infrastructure exist, and how many creative jobs the city has. The other seven ask for “more”, “increased” or “improved” without a baseline, and three of them are about how residents feel, though the plan names no survey that would ask them. Progress reports are promised to a council advisory committee, yearly, with no date for the first.

In July we reported the adoption from the council’s own summary and said we would come back to the measures of success once they were published. They were already online: the adopted plan is served from the project page with a Last-Modified date of 29 July, the day before our story ran. This is that follow-up, late. We have now read the plan end to end, the report councillors voted on, the minutes of the vote, the exhibited draft and the two consultation reports. Page numbers are the plan’s printed ones; its PDF shows two pages per screen.

The twelve measures

Each pillar page carries a block headed Measuring our success and tracking our progress towards a creative Newcastle (pages 50, 52, 54 and 56; all twelve also appear on the Plan on a Page, pages 12 to 13). We have sorted them by what a reader could actually check.

Two of the seven directional measures have a starting point somewhere else in the plan. For the council’s own cultural workforce, its “Culture by Numbers” page counts 60+ full-time cultural experts at City of Newcastle (page 17). For the rest, no baseline is given. The word “survey” does not appear anywhere in the adopted plan (we searched the full text on 5 October), so it does not say how the three perception measures will be asked.

The one with a number: 1,200 jobs, from what

The base is in the plan. “Culture by Numbers” records 3,472 full-time jobs in creative workforce (2024) (page 17). The text on page 26 says that As of 2024, almost 3,500 people were employed full-time in the sector locally. This is forecast to grow by a further 1,200 jobs by 2036. Its footnote points to Bull+Bear forecast in Appendix.

That appendix (page 63) is a table headed Economic Contribution Growth Scenario, sourced to Bull & Bear Economics (2025). Its direct employment row, in full-time equivalents, runs 3,472 in 2024, 3,653 in 2026, 4,150 in 2031 and 4,709 in 2036. That is 1,237 more over twelve years, about 2.6 per cent a year (our arithmetic). The same scenario forecasts direct value added rising from $564.76 million to $749.17 million. So the measure of success for the workforce pillar is, give or take 37 jobs, the growth the plan’s consultants modelled in 2025, before the plan was adopted.

Three things the plan does not say, as at 5 October 2026:

• Which count will be used. The base is full-time equivalents from a model; the measure says “jobs”. The plan’s other employment figure is the ABS Census table on page 60, which counts 3,134 workers in the city’s arts, culture and creative industries in 2021, by industry of employment. Those are different series and would give different answers in 2036.
• Who counts, and how often. No owner, data source or reporting interval is attached to the measure.
• The second half of the measure. It also asks for growth in the number and proportion of people employed in cultural production occupations, with no baseline and no statement of what the proportion is a share of. The nearest figure in the plan is the Census industry table’s Cultural Production line: 864 workers in 2011, 804 in 2016, 858 in 2021 (page 60). That is an industry count, not an occupation count.

Councillors noticed. Adopting the plan, they carried an amendment moved by Cr Pringle that the council, Utilising Census 2026 data, the results of the 2026 Creative Workplaces survey report, public engagement on the Culture Plan and direct engagement with experts, undertake an assessment of industry development opportunities and training pathways to ensure that the Cultural Plan’s projections of an additional 1,200 creative jobs by 2036 are realised, reporting back through two advisory committees (minutes of 28 July, page 7). The council’s own resolution calls the figure a projection. It sets no date for the report.

What the draft measured that the adopted plan does not

The version put out for comment had a target with a baseline. Under “What Success Looks Like in 2036” the draft said Creative jobs continue to outpace other industries, with 6% of the total workforce employed in the creative sector (up from 4.1% today). (draft page 48). That share, and the 4.1 per cent starting point, are not in the adopted plan. The draft also listed an action for Completing an LGA-wide floor space and employment survey. This will allow CN to measure how much floorspace creative industries have gained or lost during the life of this plan and beyond. (draft page 67). The adopted plan keeps the floorspace assessment as a measure (page 52); the employment survey is gone.

The 1,200 jobs moved too. In the draft it was an action, Supporting the creation of more than 1,200 new jobs in the broader creative sector, with the council working with Business Hunter, the University of Newcastle and the Hunter Creative Alliance to monitor trends and emerging opportunities (draft page 69). In the adopted plan it is the measure.

Measures were what the consultation asked for. The council’s Engagement Summary Report says The absence of hard funding commitments, measurable actions and clear timelines was raised repeatedly, including by respondents who expressed overall support for the draft Plan. (page 6). At a 11 May workshop the council’s Community and Culture Strategic Advisory Committee noted the Plan could be enhanced by quantifiable success measures, though it was noted that this may be a next phase of work. (page 18). The council’s Public Exhibition Report answers: Measures of success and KPI frameworks were expanded. (page 6). The staff report to councillors says accountability concerns were mitigated through the addition of specific KPIs related to each pillar, with ongoing implementation reports planned for the Community & Culture Strategic Advisory Committee. (item 9.1, page 3).

When the council says it will report

The plan’s planning diagram routes reporting through the council’s standard documents, Performance Reports, the Annual Report and the State of our City Report, under Continuous monitoring and review (page 18). It sets no reporting date of its own.

The staff report adds that after endorsement an operational action plan will be developed for year one within the Creative & Community Services directorate. This action plan will be reviewed and updated annually over the Plan’s 10-year lifespan. (page 3). On costs, it says implementation will be funded through operational budgets over ten years, with multiple actions able to be funded initially through the adopted 2026/27 operational budget (page 2). A second amendment, moved by Cr Adamczyk and carried with the plan, Requests the yearly CP Implementation Plans are reported to advisory and standing committees as relevant, and records that endorsement should not be taken as endorsement of a Council commitment to co- (or fully) funding any new infrastructure (minutes, page 8). Two of the four deliverable measures are new infrastructure.

As at 5 October 2026, the advisory committee has met once since adoption, on 1 September, and its agenda had no Cultural Plan item; its next meeting is listed for 3 November. We found no year-one action plan on the project page or in that agenda, and nothing in that agenda on the jobs assessment.

Our view

This section is opinion, built on the facts above.

Could a resident check this plan in 2030? Partly. Four of its measures are honest yes-or-no questions, and a resident can ask them: is there a floorspace study, a microgrants round, new cultural space at Broadmeadow or Honeysuckle, new event infrastructure. The council should get credit for adding measures at all after the draft drew exactly that criticism.

But the measure most likely to be quoted back in 2036 is the weakest test of the plan. A target set at the level the plan’s own model forecasts measures the trend, not the plan: hit it and the plan cannot claim the credit, miss it and the forecast was wrong. It also has no settled yardstick, since the plan offers a modelled full-time-equivalent count and a Census headcount, for different years, 338 apart. The draft’s 6 per cent share of the workforce, with its 4.1 per cent baseline, was a sharper question, and it is the one that was dropped.

The seven directional measures need only one thing to become checkable: a starting figure and a named source for each, published with the year-one action plan. Councillors have already asked for the jobs assessment. Publishing the baselines alongside it would cost little, and it would let a resident in 2030 see whether “more” happened. We will read the year-one action plan and the first implementation report against these twelve when they appear.

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