You might not have read anything about it, but there’s a federal election going on this Saturday.
I know. That one totally flew under the radar, didn’t it? You woulda thought somebody would have said something.
In any case, it’s hard to know how to vote if you’re a lover of live music, or indeed the arts in general. Every party in Australia is saying something about everything at the moment, so it’s easy to become distracted by all the noise.
To that end, we’ve sorted the wheat from the chaff and the facts from the jargon, so that you might know how to best vote if you want to look out for the Australian music industry at the ballot box this Saturday. Take a gander below, and then have your say this Saturday.
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THE LABOR PARTY
DJ Albo, laying down a dope mixtape on Rage
The Policy:
Labor’s arts policy is very strong, and satisfyingly heavy on practicalities. Though the full Labor media release on music has all the assurances that one could expect from a party trying to get elected, it also has a neat budget breakdown.
Basically, Bill Shorten and his pals are promising to inject a further $8 million into theRegional Arts Fund, which will increase services pertaining to music in rural areas, along with a $5.4 million injection into a live music fund. On top of that, Shorten is also promising to bring the Live Music Office and the Australian Music Centre together, putting them under the umbrella of the already existing organisation known as Sounds Australia.
Additionally, Labor is also promising to boost the future of music by increasing funds for education services, including a pledged $2 million it’ll invest in a series of music programs aimed at younger Australians, and an ongoing $350,000 a year that will be spent on the SongMakersprogram.
The Candidates:
If you’re in Grayndler, the Inner West seat that’s home to many of Sydney’s finest live music venues, then Anthony Albanese is your local Labor candidate. For the record, he’s a sick DJ whose taste spans acts as eclectic as Courtney Barnett and Kylie Minogue. Check out his recent DJ set here, and bask in the man’s taste. For those of you in the seat of Sydney, it’s Tanya Plibersek, and the Labor candidate challenging the PM in Wentworth is Evan Hughes.A full list of federal Labor candidates, organised by state, can be found here.
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THE LIBERAL PARTY
The only photo of Malcolm Turnbull you need to see.
The Policy:
What policy? No. Seriously.What policy?
We actually emailed the Libs to ask about their election policies on the music industry, and were directed to check their website. All we found there was discussions about the NBN, with not a single mention of music to be found. Christ.
It is perhaps to be expected that a conservative party would offer up little in the way of arts funding, but Malcolm Turnbull’s current stance is more extreme and negative than most Liberal politicians of recent memory. Even John Howard was more positive about live music and culture, and Tony Abbott wasn’t averse to getting behind a karaoke mic himself.
The Liberal Party today is lacking even such platitudes, hollow or not. The Liberals’ arts policy has been defined by negativity and funding cuts. Their latest budget threatened tostrip bare Sounds Australia, the very institution Shorten is promising to restore, and they have also made clear their intent to remove the import changes on foreign literature that were put in place to protect Australian publishing, a move that has been roundly critcisedby industry figures.
Richard Flanagan has gone on record to suggest that the Turnbull government is trying to destroy Australian arts, as has STC’s Michael Lynch.
Wouldn’t it be nice to surprise you on this one? Wouldn’t it be nice to suggest that a conservative government could still offer even vague support to the arts? But the facts don’t support such a desire. Bottom line? If you want to support musicians, put the Liberals right down at the bottom.
The Candidates:
Hey, on the positive side, at least the Liberal Party’s website is user-friendly and state-specific, so you can click hereto find the names of all the people you’re going to be putting last. Those in the Grayndler electorate can vote for an ex-army officer (yay) named David Van Gogh, while the Liberal candidate in Sydney is Geoffrey Winters, and the candidate in Wentworth is an abject disappointment named Malcolm Turnbull.
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THE GREENS
Greens party leader and Wiggle-in-waiting Richard Di Natale (image courtesy The Shovel)
The Policy:
The Greens have a comprehensive set of arts and culture policies, all of which are available to peruse on their website,here. Perhaps most positively, they understand that the arts aren’t just some dalliance, or a guaranteed economic loss – after all, there are more Australiansemployed in the arts sector than there are in the mining sector, a fact the Greens seem well aware of.
Also, check this: “Given the insecure nature of employment in the arts, many artists will at one point or another in their career find themselves unemployed and in need of income support,”reads an article on The Greens’ website.“During these times, work done to perfect their craft will increase employability in the future, but it currently goes unrecognised by the social security system. Furthermore, the requirement to spend time complying with extensive Centrelink mutual obligation requirements leaves less time to develop skills.”
How’s that for a pretty apt analysis of the life of a burgeoning muso? It’s not just talk either: the Greens havea detailed plan to inject $270.2 million into the arts. Pretty good stuff.
The Candidates:
If you’re in the live-music-heavy Grayndler electorate, ex-firefighter Jim Casey is your man. If you’re in the Sydney electorate it’s Sylvie Ellsmore, and for those of you in Wentworth it’s Dejay Toborek. The full list of Greens candidates in New South Wales can be accessedhere, so have a hunt there.
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THE OTHER PARTIES
If you don’t feel like chucking a vote to one of the three major parties, or have some numbers to fill on your Senate ballot, there are a number of smaller groups that offer strong arts policies. The Australian Sex Party is more concerned with the restriction of material considered profane or unrateable than live music, but its argument for the widespread adoption of an X 18 certificate would have a profound impact on the art that can be sold and made.
Similarly, though the Science Party doesn’t have a rigid arts policy, it supports the right to online privacy and online communication and wants to incentivise teaching in disadvantaged schools, policies that affect the arts in tangential yet important ways.
And then, of course, there’s the Arts Party. It boasts the distinction of being the only Australian party that is wholly crowdfunded, and has a series of distinct policies that aim to improve the public’s engagement with the artsas well as policies aimed at increasing revenue for the arts. Sounds like a plan.
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Main photo: Ashley Mar
The 2016 Australian federal election takes place this Saturday July 2. Lucky us, eh? For all of your election queries (i.e. where to do it) head here.
