Labor Pledges $20 Million To Live Music In Australia With New Arts Policy

Labor

The Australian Labor Party has announced their plans to invest millions of dollars into the Australian arts and music industry if elected next weekend.

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The ALP’s new arts and music policy was introduced at Melbourne’s Hotel Esplanade this arvo and put a large emphasis on supporting Indigenous music, arts, and culture and live music in Australia. A Shorten Labor government will provide $3 million to support existing First Nations’ theatre companies and dance groups. Labor will provide funding for a new Indigenous Theatre company, a new Aboriginal art and cultures gallery in Adelaide, and crackdown on the distribution of fake art across the country to protect First Nations artists.

Labor will also provide $5 million – over five years – to the Support Act, to deliver a comprehensive mental health program for people in the music industry.

If elected, Labor will tackle fraudulent ticket scalping sites by legislating a resale price cap of 110 per cent, banning ticket-buying bots, and directing the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to act as watchdogs.

A mammoth 20 million buckeroos will go to the Australian Music Live Music Fund to support live music venues, hotels, restaurants, cafes, festivals, precinct events, and musicians. Sounds Australia will receive more than $10 million to drive music exports and live music. Another $2.1 million will to go the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR) to provide mentoring programs for young female musos and key industry roles.

Labor has also promised to give the ABC $40 million and the SBS $20 million to boost local quality content.

“We’ve got seven days people to help change the nation,” Shorten said at the Espy.

“I love our arts industry, I love what you do, the stories you tell, the hope you give, the talent you bring. Today I say that if you like what you see, if you bemoan the lack of passion in politics,  if you think the system is broken, if you think you would like to see better politics, a more civil politics, a less toxic politics, a less One Nation, Pauline Hanson, Clive Palmer … if you want to see better, then I’m going to ask you in the next seven days, tell your friends, tell your family, tell your colleagues, what we will get on May 19 – the Sunday after the election – is the government we will fight for.

“What we will get next weekend is the government that we want to see in the mirror of our identity.”  

The 2019 Federal Election will be held on Saturday, May 18. 

Not long now.

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