Having dropped controversial sponsor Transfield Holdings after artists protested its ties to government detention centers, the beleaguered Biennale of Sydney has a new detractor. Australian arts minister George Brandis is threatening to withdraw the exhibition’s government funding.

Brandis has written to the Australia Council (which is in charge of distributing federal arts funding), arguing that the Biennale has severed ties with Transfield on “unreasonable grounds” and should be penalized by the government. The minister feels that taxpayers would be justified in wondering “If the Sydney Biennale doesn’t need Transfield’s money, why should they be asking for ours?”