Victoria Votes '14: Gov Needs To Recognise More Than Just Heritage Music

Chair of Music Victoria, Ashley Admiraal explains why Labor’s proposed establishment of the Creative Victoria agency will be good for Victoria’s music industry.

Buried on page 78 of Victorian Labor’s election manifesto Platform 2014, are words of considerable importance to the music industry:

Labor will: Replace Arts Victoria with a new State agency to lead whole-of-Government investment activity in the creative sectors to drive innovation and investment.

The working title of this new agency is ‘Creative Victoria’, and it will probably be housed in a new government department. This will mean the current Arts Victoria Act 1972 will need to be amended, or repealed and consolidated into a super-arts act along with the other statutes for the Arts Centre, Geelong Performing Arts Centre, State Library and museums.

Should Labor get in on November 29, this will result in the biggest shake up of the arts sector in Victoria since, well, probably the biggest ever, and with serious implications for the $.5 billion a year Victorian government arts budget. The stakes are high.

What does this mean for the contemporary music sector? Well, Labor has in part answered that question. It proposes to back the sector to the tune of $22.2 million in its Music Works policy. To date, no other arts sector has been specifically mentioned as an election promise of the major parties, let alone financially backed. This represents a huge leap of faith in the local music industry by Labor, and signals a potential paradigm shift in the Victorian government’s relationship with the arts.

The 2014-15 $488 million arts budget provided scraps for contemporary music. For decades, successive governments have preferenced against contemporary music, in favour of ‘heritage’ music.

This is actually not the fault of any one individual, not successive Directors of Arts Victoria, not even the current Minister (though funding for contemporary music has significantly diminished over the last term of government). It’s a corporate thing, with a largely stagnant Arts Victoria model carried over from decade to decade, government to government, and held hostage to supporting large state institutions.

I’m not slagging off heritage music, nor our wonderful institutions. I celebrate music in all its forms, and am an avid consumer of our galleries and museums. But surely $2 billion over four years provides room enough for a more balanced public support for both heritage and contemporary music?

"I’m not slagging off heritage music, nor our wonderful institutions."

Another problem with the current Arts Victoria model is that it doesn’t actually represent or champion contemporary music. We’re effectively homeless within the state government. If I’m a farmer, or a transport company, a high school teacher, or health professional, I know where my home is in the Victorian government because there is a minister and department (for better or worse) with clear responsibilities for managing my issues.

Over the last four years, it’s not the arts portfolio which has championed contemporary music, it’s been the Minister for Liquor and Gaming regulation and the Department of Justice. While this has been a bit weird, it has worked.

It started with Michael O’Brien before he became Treasurer, and finished off with Edward O’Donohue who, as successive chairs of the Live Music Roundtable delivered a series of welcomed reforms to: the liquor regulation regime; introduced agent of change planning reform; de-regulated all-ages and mixed age gigs; kicked off reform to the environmental noise regulations; and provided a $500,000 fund for acoustic attenuation of live music venues.

Having the Minister for Liquor and Gaming as the champion of the grass roots music scene is ironic, given the displacement of music entertainment by gambling ‘entertainment’. Still, for his efforts in recent years, Edward O’Donohue is and always will be a friend of contemporary music. But with the disbanding of the Live Music Roundtable, this temporary arrangement has now expired.

It’s worth mentioning that these reforms were delivered with considerable efforts from the Music Victoria/SLAM axis and their cohort of volunteers who presented the government with seriously considered solutions to complex regulatory and legal problems.

Enter from stage left, Labor’s new agency Creative Victoria: “The role of this agency is to facilitate artistic and cultural benefits as well as generate new jobs and industries of the creative economy.”

These words have been carefully thought through by Labor, and driven at a very personal and intellectual level by Labor’s shadow Minister for Arts, Martin Foley.

The model draws from international trends, including structures from the Netherlands, and with a nod to other Australian states including New South Wales which have pursued more assertive arts policies geared around the creative or knowledge economy, and emphasising economic development. These notions will be threatening to many in the arts community – but not to the contemporary music sector, and this is why.

The biggest client of the arts sector is government. Most arts organisations derive their income from a combination of Commonwealth government, state government, private sector benefactors, or their own commercially derived cash.

The biggest client of the contemporary music sector is the consumer. It’s an industry that operates successfully in the free market. The business model is based almost entirely on commercially derived cash, and centred on the creative process and the capture and transfer of intellectual property. Government grants provide a bit of icing on top.

"Should Labor get in on November 29, this will result in the biggest shake up of the arts sector in Victoria since, well, probably the biggest ever."

From a creative economy perspective, the music sector ticks the boxes of artistic and cultural benefits, as well as being a net generator of economic activity. That’s essentially why Labor is putting up $22 million. It’s not a hand-out, it’s an investment.

For the longer term, in order to deliver on that investment and strategically plan, we need to think about where we want the Victorian music industry to be in ten years time. How about this:

• A $2 billion industry for Victoria – that’s about double of now –contributing a third of one percent to gross state product.
• An industry that commands more than half of national market share and retains a greater share of intellectual property royalties in Victoria.
• Provides greater job security, and for many, a job for life.
• Melbourne as an internationally recognised music city, and with a thriving regional live music circuit.

To deliver these things, it’s not just about the $22 million, it’s about how we partner with government to provide structure and planning. It’s about a thriving music sector which delivers an economic and social dividend for Victoria. To do that, government and industry need shared objectives, and with economic performance targets for Creative Victoria to give it some skin in the game.

The 40-year-old Arts Victoria arrangement will deliver little for our sector.

The Creative Victoria model, if done properly, will set us in the right direction.

Vote wisely on 29 November, and before you do, check out Music Victoria’s election report card.