Government On Notice Over Music Policies Ahead Of Vic Election

With music is emerging as a key topic of the upcoming Victorian state elections Music Victoria have today thrown down the gauntlet to the incumbent Coalition government – as well as the Labor and Greens parties – to roll out their policies.

Riding on the momentum of a strong two years of dialogue and outcomes between the music industry and authorities – the most recent win being the implementation of the agent of change principle, protecting venues from noise complaints of new residents – the state’s peak contemporary music body are determined that live music features in the parties’ policies.

Today they’ve posted a ‘report card’ of policies, with only the Coalition having thus far committed to music reforms ahead of the 29 November election.

“It is still very early on, the election is ten weeks away,” Music Victoria CEO Patrick Donovan told theMusic.com.au today. “But we released our white paper last March, presenter it to the Coalition, Labor the Greens, The Sex Party and the Rock’n’Roll party and so we thought let’s get the report card up and see what they come up with.”

The card will be updated between now and the election as the parties unveil their strategies. It covers the activation of Music Victoria’s regional action plan, an increase an arts funding, promotion of trade opportunities, establishment of a contemporary music hub and funding for Music Victoria.

The only confirmed commitment made so far is in regards to the building code variations for live music, which the Coalition have scheduled for later this year.

“I think we are trying to capitalise on the momentum on the amazing live music reform that we’ve negotiated with the current government,” Donovan said. “We’ve emphasised that the recent work has fixed what is broken [as outlined in 2012’s Music Victoria White Paper], and the [2014] White Paper is all about opportunities.”

Donovan praised the relationship with the current government, who he said have “ticked off” everything from their 2012 white paper.

“Music is front and centre of the government discourse at the moment,” he said. “…We want to be respected as an industry and as well as the arts department we want to work with all these other departments.”

Music Victoria’s evaluation of the Liberal government’s 2010 election commitments is largely positive, with getting live music’s value being recognised in the liquor act, the deregulation of all age gigs, implementation of agent of change, a $500,000 commitment to acoustic attenuation of live venues and more all taking place under their watch. The only negative is a significant reduction in funding for musicians through the arts section, including removal of separate funding avenues for contemporary musicians and music initiatives.

See the report card in full here