Why You Shouldn't Vote For The Basics Rock'n'Roll Party

History was made at Face The Music in Melbourne over the weekend – politicians were falling over themselves to throw money at our industry during the annual conference.

After decades in the wilderness, music is being recognised for its cultural, economic and social benefits. Both the Victorian Liberal government and opposition Labor party are using it as a key topic in the run up to the upcoming state election.

Labor have pledged $22 million to various music-based initiatives, the Liberals announced a $1 million kitty to implement Music Victoria's regional touring initiative. This industry is no longer in the political wilderness.

It was most evident at Face The Music, where the Liberal party's Minister For Liquor And Gaming Regulation Edward O'Donohue, Labor's Shadow Arts Minister Martin Foley, Greens party spokesperson Sue Pennicuik and Australian Sex Party leader Fiona Patten took time out of their electioneering cycles to speak on a panel. They were joined by Kris Schroeder band member of The Basics and leader of the newly founded The Basics Rock'N'Roll Party.

We, like many others of the industry, were excited when The Basics helped push music further on the political map when they announced their intentions to form a party. We covered it extensively.

How embarrassed we all look now after the disgraceful performance of Schroeder.

Thrown the first proper question of the panel, Schroeder admitted that having spent “the last three years in Africa” he wasn't up to date with the current climate. He wasn't across the historic amendment in the agent of change laws. He hadn't seen the immense effort that had gone into the return of all ages shows. He admitted he'd never heard of the Live Music Roundtable, set up by the Liberal government as a way for industry stakeholders to speak with the various departments of government to raise and work through the issues. All he did ask, with some sense of entitlement, was why he wasn't on it.

He seemed not to know about any of the hard work Music Victoria and bodies like the National Live Music Office had done to get to this point.

Schroeder went on to question why anyone was still talking about protecting and supporting metro venues, because there was already plenty of them, and just wanted to focus on regional areas. Despite receiving grants with The Basics, he didn't see the need to build up that sector either. (I wonder what his drummer Gotye thinks about that, given that a $10,000 Australia Council grant helped break him in America – and we all know how that went.)

He said we needed to stop worrying about the industry and just concern ourselves with the musicians – a point he later contradicted himself when he agreed that we should be empowering regional promoters to take chances on Victorian artists. He rubbished Labor's $10 million plan to create a music hub, which would incorporate a Hall Of Fame, calling it a “waste of money” without offering a viable alternative.

But it wasn't just the dangerous nature of his ill-thought out statements that should have had the room squirming, it was the manner in which he delivered it. Appearing utterly uninterested in having a mature conversation, he disrespected his fellow panelists by delivering answers irrelevant to the questions posed to him. He came across as more of a question-evading politician than the other four put together.

At one point he even left the panel, without warning or apology, returning five/ten minutes later without a word of explanation.

He was our representative up there – and he made us look like children.

If I was a political advisor sitting in that auditorium, I'd not only be wondering why the hell we were pledging millions of dollars to help build this industry, I'd have been wondering how to get as far away from it as possible.

It's heartbreaking to see so much good work, a lot of it behind the scenes and vastly under-appreciated, being hung out to dry with such nonchalance. If it was a joke, it wasn't funny. If it was an attempt at a parody, it was the wrong place and time. If it was a publicity stunt, it backfired spectacularly.

Whatever the chip on the shoulder was that day, it's simply not needed in discussions that will ultimately shape the future of our industry and pave the way for generation after generation of upcoming musicians and those around them.