Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport - Statement on the NSW Charter for Small Business
Executive summary
Small businesses are critical to NSW’s creative, cultural, tourism, hospitality, and sport sectors.
Small businesses create jobs, support the NSW economy, bring authenticity to visitor experiences, animate our streets, precincts, and sportsgrounds, build social connections and relationships, and drive innovation. From independent artists and local venues to community-led tourism and grassroots sporting enterprises, these businesses create jobs, foster cultural identity, and make NSW a vibrant and healthy place to live in and visit.
The Department of Creative Industries, Tourism, Hospitality and Sport (DCITHS) applies the six principles of the NSW Government’s Charter for Small Business to support the contribution of NSW small businesses to the state’s economic and cultural success.
Introduction to DCITHS
DCITHS creates social and economic opportunities for NSW by growing the State’s creative industries and workforces, driving strong visitor and night-time economies, and ensuring a vibrant and responsible hospitality and entertainment sector.
DCITHS brings together the NSW Government's key organisations supporting our:
- creative industries
- visitor and night-time economies
- arts, major events and hospitality sectors
- Cultural Institutions; and
- sports and entertainment agencies.
This statement has been prepared under the NSW Charter for Small Business to explain how DCITHS supports small businesses in the work we do.
This Statement represents the following Divisions of DCITHS: Hospitality and Racing, Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner and Sound NSW, Screen NSW, Create NSW, and the Office of the Secretary.
Why small business is critical to the success of DCITHS
Small businesses are central to the work of DCITHS.
Small businesses are the artists, sole operators, hospitality venues, entrepreneurs and community enterprises at the heart of creative industries, tourism, hospitality and sport in NSW. They create jobs, foster innovation, and deliver authentic experiences for customers and visitors.
Small businesses bring diversity and energy to our streets and contribute to making NSW an attractive place to live, socialise and visit. Our events and venues are major catalysts for small businesses in surrounding areas – including hotels, retailers, cafes, bars and restaurants - supporting local jobs and celebrating our culturally rich and vibrant local communities.
Supporting small business means supporting the future of NSW’s cultural, creative, going-out and visitor economies.
How DCITHS applies the NSW Government’s Charter for Small Business
Working with the NSW community, including small business, DCITHS seeks to:
- Create social and economic opportunities for the state.
- Support job creation across creative, visitor, hospitality and night-time economies.
- Drive visitation through events, campaigns and experiences.
- Ensure arts, culture, entertainment and sport are accessible to all communities.
- Activate creative and night-time economies to create unique precincts, experiences and spaces.
- Deliver a vibrant, responsible hospitality, liquor, racing and gaming environment.
- Prioritise First Nations artists, stories and culture.
- Support procurement from First Nations businesses and employment opportunities for First Nations people.
- Support NSW’s Cultural Institutions to deliver engaging experiences, preserve heritage and enable education and community engagement.
DCITHS works across the six principles of the NSW Charter for Small Business to support small business.
DCITHS aims to connect small business with funding, resources, and networks to build capability and unlock opportunities for growth and development. DCITHS provides practical support, strategic insights, and place-based initiatives to help operators to innovate and succeed. We work at both an individual business scale and a precinct / area scale. This helps small business overcome the barriers that they can particularly face in being aware of, and accessing, government support.
A key focus is also on fostering dialogue between small businesses, creative industries, and local communities. This can help support partnerships that support and grow local economies, and enable a broader mix of cultural, creative, dining, entertainment and community-based activities.
For example:
Funding and Capacity Building [Create NSW/Screen NSW]: through a range of grant programs focussed specifically on small businesses. This targeted support helps small business to start, grow, and thrive:
- The Arts and Cultural Funding Program (ACFP) provides grants, funding and support to arts and cultural organisations, professional artists and arts and cultural workers across NSW.
- In FY 2025-2026, the multi-year ACFP is providing $33.7 million in funding support to 153 small to medium not-for-profit arts organisations across NSW. Funding can be used towards employment, program delivery and administrative overhead costs.
- An important part of this funding support is funding for First Nations led companies (Creative Nations) and priority groups (Cultural Access).
- Create NSW supports and prioritises First Nations self-determination by investing in initiatives led by First Nations organisations and artists. These investments enable a wide range of culturally significant activities across the state, strengthening living culture, heritage, languages and stories of First Nations communities. In 2024-25, Create NSW committed over $2.7 million to First Nations-led projects and organisations through the ACFP and strategic partnerships.
- Other programs under Create NSW’s ACFP program support small to medium arts organisations with targeted project funding or focus specifically on supporting individual artists. These include: The Createability Internship Program, the Visual Arts Fellowship (Emerging), and Professional Skills Development (Next Steps).
- Applicant experience data is also collected, including from small business and individual artists, to ensure grant processes are accessible for everyone.
- Screen NSW delivers target programs that directly support small business across the screen sector, including independent production companies, post production houses, digital games studios and emerging practitioners. Key initiatives include:
- The Digital Games Seed Development Fund, which provides early stage support for small digital games studios to prototype, build capability and accelerate their pathway to market.
- The Crew Development Program, which addresses crew skills shortages and increased opportunities for under-represented communities in the Screen sector.
- IP in Motion Fund, which reduces small businesses’ upfront financial barrier to accessing new IP.
Uptown Program [24-Hour and Sound]: nurtures vibrant, community-led business districts. By encouraging local businesses, artists, community groups and cultural operators to form District Teams, the program creates a shared governance structure and roadmap. Through support for collective governance, branding, programming, pitches to partners, and seed funding, Uptown helps these districts grow into self-sustaining groups led by local small business.
The Hospitality Concierge [Hospitality and Racing] – is a free one stop shop that works with the Service NSW Business Bureau to support licensed business across NSW. The Hospitality Concierge engages with every first-time licensee or approved manager to talk one-on-one about their licence and obligations as a licensee. In the Have Your Say survey (May–June 2025), 85% of licensed venues ranked the Hospitality Concierge service as ‘somewhat-’ or ‘very-helpful. [1]
A range of other DCITHS programs also contain significant elements that support small business to start, grow and thrive, including:
- Capability and Compliance Support, such as Working With Children Check (WWCC) obligations [Hospitality and Racing]
- The Regional Night-Time Economy Program and the Live Performance Venue Program, and funding associated with Purple Flag and Uptown [24-Hour and Sound]
- Targeted grant programs that support individual artists and creative businesses, (including the Quick Response Fashion Grants program) [Create NSW]
DCITHS engages with and listens to small businesses to produce fit for purpose policies and regulations.
DCITHS use targeted consultations, roundtables, webinars and the “Have Your Say” platform to ensure small business have a clear voice in our regulatory and policy decisions.
DCITHS values co-design and inclusive governance, ensuring small businesses have a voice in shaping cultural and creative strategies.
For example:
24-Hour Economy Advisory Council [24-Hour and Sound]: brings together industry, local government and small business representatives to shape strategy, regulation and precinct development. The expert advice of the Council informs the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner's work to create an enabling regulatory environment where businesses can invest, develop vibrant, coordinated precincts, increase the diversity of night-time activities and position Sydney / NSW as a global 24-hour economy. This includes a core role in developing and implementing the refreshed NSW 24-Hour Economy Strategy and the Vibrancy Reforms.
Sector-specific consultation for the Art of Tax Reform [DCITHS and Create NSW]: national consultation, launched by the NSW Government, to explore how reform of Commonwealth taxes could better support the cultural and creative sector was specifically designed to engage individual artists and small creative groups. The NSW Government’s sought to understand the views of creative businesses of different sizes to help inform the government’s efforts to advocate for reform of national tax settings through the next National Cultural Policy. This utilised targeted channels, including the NSW Government “Have Your Say” platform and a dedicated summit, and submissions were published as received so that stakeholders could review and build on ideas from peers, industry leaders, and peak bodies.
Targeted consultation with small business was also a feature in developing and implementing a range of other DCITHS initiatives, including the NSW Creative Communities Policy (2024–2033) and the Creative Industries Sectoral Strategies [Create NSW].
DCITHS has a diverse range of regulatory roles, regulating sectors from motor and combat sports to gaming, alcohol and thoroughbred racing. DCITHS consults with stakeholders and uses evidence based approaches to create regulatory regimes that reduce unnecessary complexity and support business innovation.
For example:
Vibrancy Reforms [24-Hour and Sound / Hospitality and Racing]: leading whole-of-government reforms, DCITHS has simplified entertainment sound management, outdoor activations and liquor licensing to reduce regulatory obstacles for small venues and event organisers. For example, the Special Entertainment Precinct framework was developed with councils and venues to provide clearer, favourable trading hours and sound conditions, reducing compliance complexity and supporting and protecting going-out precincts. Since 2023 there has been a 6.4% increase in food, drink and entertainment businesses in Central Sydney and a 4.2% increase in Western Sydney. [1]
The Vibrancy Reforms have been informed by the world-leading Data After Dark platform and Quarterly Insights reports, which enable evidence-based targeting and monitoring of policy and regulation. The Vibrancy Reforms have significantly reduced barriers to participation in creative industries, supporting reforms that make compliance simpler for small creative operators. Since 2023 the number of licensed venues registered as live music venues has more than doubled from 200 venues to 573 venues. [2]
Regulatory Roadshows [Hospitality and Racing]: reducing red tape by giving small businesses clear, practical advice at the point of need. Face-to-face engagement helps operators identify and resolve issues early, avoid unnecessary delays, and understand requirements in plain language. This approach supports a level playing field, reduces compliance risks, and cuts the time and effort small businesses spend navigating regulatory processes.
Insights gathered through Roadshow visits also feed into ongoing regulatory improvements, helping DCITHS identify recurring pain points and refine rules, guidance and processes.
[1] Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner “State of the Night 2025”.
[2] Office of the 24-Hour Economy Commissioner “State of the Night 2025”.
DCITHS is committed to supporting local small businesses by applying fair procurement practices that align with NSW Government Policy objectives, including the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) and Regional Procurement Policy and the Aboriginal Procurement Policy.
We source in line with the NSW Procurement Policy Framework and encourage participation from small, regional, Aboriginal-owned, and social enterprises, recognising the important role government procurement plays in supporting jobs and long-term economic sustainability.
We measure outcomes to continuously refine our approach, including support for small businesses.
For example:
24-Hour Economy Strategy [24-Hour and Sound]: embeds a strong emphasis on data and measurement, including indicators for amenities, workforce conditions and precinct performance. Programs such as Purple Flag accreditation apply internationally recognised standards to assess nighttime precinctsand promote best practice. Initiatives like the Regional Night-Time Economy Program and business-to-business platforms such as Neon Marketplace drive collaboration and enable local activation. Data After Dark collates and visualises multiple key metrics for night-time economic performance, enabling councils and government agencies access to near-real-time localised data to better understand industry performance, and providing insights for small businesses.
We are continuing to expand our approach to include further metrics and analysis on the things that matter, including data that can improve how we engage with and support small business. For example, the new State of the Night report – first published in 2025 – now provides independent advice and an annual snapshot of the health of the night-time economy in NSW, including small business. This report will help identify opportunities for how we engage with and support small business.
DCITHS partners with the Service NSW Business Bureau to deliver on key Charter actions, ensuring a consistent whole of NSW Government approach to supporting NSW small businesses. This includes contributing case studies, feedback and performance data to the Department of Customer Service for inclusion on the Charter for Small Business webpage.