Victoria Votes '14: Election Report Card - How The Parties Weigh Up

The state election campaign is underway and in the final straight. Both major and minor parties are pursuing the music community’s votes, pitching significant policy announcements at the music sector and with accompanying funded financial commitments.

This is a major turn around from five years ago when the music scene didn't exist as far as the government was concerned. In fact, the live music scene was staring down the barrel of bad and uninformed liquor licensing policy (live music = high-risk) that was a reaction to sensationalist tabloid journalism. This crisis ultimately resulted in the SLAM Rally. But something else happened: we got organised. Not only was there a problem with liquor licensing regulation, there were still problems with the planning system and the building code, and we didn't have a peak body to interact with government. Arts funding was scant, community radio didn't look like it would make it to digital and the music noise standard SEPP-N2 was (and still is) out of line with community expectations, way out of date, and missed its review date. Since then, through the hard work and dedication of a number of individuals, and with leadership from Music Victoria (created in the wake of the liquor licensing crisis of 2010), most of these regulatory issues have been addressed or are in the process of being addressed.

"The needs of the music scene are now fundamentally different from five years ago."

The forums and vehicles for these reform achievements were initially under the Brumby Labor Government (fixing the liquor license policy relating to live music risk assessment) and importantly seed funding for Music Victoria. Then under the Baillieu/Napthine Government – recognising the importance of live music in the liquor act – the Agent Of Change concept was inserted in the planning system by Matthew Guy and made law, the building code was amended by the Red Tape Commissioner to stop live music unnecessarily requiring major building upgrades, underage gig approval were streamlined and all ages gigs were made possible again.

These reforms were made possible through the Live Music Roundtable, its predecessor the Premier's Live Music Roundtable and the political leadership of Edward O'Donohue (Lib), Michael O'Brien (Lib), John Brumby (Labor) and Rob Hudson (Labor).

Politics is a tribal sport so I don't want to bag the combatants based on the colour of their pens, however I do believe that both flavours of government have worked hard on fixing these regulatory problems. Both sides of politics can take credit.

Labor and Liberals, however, look at the world very differently; hence their election policy offerings being reflective of their different world views.

I believe that the needs of the music scene are now fundamentally different from five years ago. We are shifting away from fixing regulation into a phase where we need to increase the economic value of the music sector and address, in particular, the viability of being a musician. It’s great to have a vibrant scene but if the practitioners are starving, it’s not sustainable. The other difference is the diversity of the scene. It’s not just about pop music. For example, hardcore bands like King Parrot are starting to see international success, The Bombay Royale have topped the iTunes world music charts and large, diverse contingents of bands are making it to major international music festivals like Glastonbury.

Labor has announced a suite of policies funded to the tune of $22.2 million – significantly, the return of the Victoria Rocks program with specifically targeted grants to assist contemporary music. These include quick response grants to help bands take advantages of playing opportunities that may leverage their careers (international supports, attending the Grammys if nominated, etc). Victoria Rocks also includes grant categories for touring, career building, and industry partnerships.

There is $400K for export initiative to help local bands get overseas and overcome that tyranny of distance and $1.6 million dedicated to mentoring our artists, and that’s directly investing in their arts practice.

Martin Foley has also earmarked a shake-up of Arts Victoria, by replacing it with Creative Victoria which will merge Arts Victoria with Film Victoria and other multimedia agencies. The idea is to shift it from an agency that administers arts funding to an agency that engages the “diverse arts ecology” with a wide spectrum of government agencies. Foley has stated that we “need a closer focus on the worth of creative mediums for their own intrinsic value”. I assume he is not referring to psychics.

The work of the Live Music Roundtable has essentially, for the music industry, been doing exactly this to date, its agenda being driven by Music Victoria's white papers, and kept honest by the SLAM barometer. This philosophic shift would potentially align Victoria with the national cultural policy and in the longer term is a model that works well for contemporary music. However, this radical restructure is liable to take time and has the potential to absorb and distract government in the short term, which is why the Live Music Roundtable needs to be maintained. Thankfully, both major parties are committed to its continuation.

$10.3 million of Labor’s commitment is for capital works and planning to create a dedicated hub and home for the peak bodies (Music Victoria, The Push, AIR), other industry development NGOs and for a Hall Of Fame. It is to be known as the Music Market and is intended to be a “one-stop shop” to service artists and the industry. Importantly, part of its function is to monitor the efficacy of the law reforms consolidated over the last five years. The location of the Music Market is yet to be determined, however The Guild in Southbank or the old Collingwood TAFE would be among the likely candidates.

"Let’s hope this doesn’t end up in a shit storm like its neighbour, the former Palace venue site aka The St Kilda Triangle."

There is $400K for naming laneways after important musicians, bands and more broadly develop tourism initiatives around our musical heritage.

In addition to the $22.2 million Labor package is the Labor commitment of $13.4 to the renovation of the Palais Theatre in St Kilda. This won’t address the estimated $26.7 million needed but in combination with the pledged $7.5 million from the Port Phillip Council, this creates a substantial base to approach the private sector to make up the short fall. Let’s hope this doesn’t end up in a shit storm like its neighbour, the former Palace venue site aka The St Kilda Triangle.

Tex Perkins, who is running against Martin Foley on this issue, said after the announcement that he would now direct his preferences to Labor.

The Liberals are not known for easily opening the purse strings but they have also made significant commitments to the tune of $2 million. The Liberal/National Coalition has committed $1 million to revitalise the regional touring circuit which has mostly disappeared over the years. Creating touring opportunities for bands that don't require a 12-hour drive to get to the next venue in another state is good news. It also ensures that our country towns are interesting and vibrant places to be, that the local pub becomes a place of community and culture, and our musical culture should not be exclusive to the inner city. This initiative will be hard work. Ex-Loin Groin bass player and National Party member for Western Victoria, David O’Brien will no doubt take personal interest in this initiative if the Coalition is re-elected. He is the real deal. He told me a story of when he impaled himself on a mic stand after stage-diving off the PA stack into the pit. That was a while ago – in a past life, he would emphasise – but my point is, he understands the issues and therefore we are in good hands if he is returned to government.

The Libs have also committed $400K over four years to fund Music Victoria. This covers one person, a desk, a phone and won’t be enough, but it certainly is welcomed.

Lastly there is a commitment of $500K for acoustic attenuation to help music venues that are not directly protected by the recent Agent Of Change provisions inserted in the Victoria planning scheme. Labor has topped this with $1.48 million on a dollar-for-dollar basis capped at $10K per venue.

Finally, I should mention the Greens and Australian Sex Party. The Greens have always been supportive of live music, keeping the pressure on the government by asking uncomfortable questions in Parliament and sponsoring the FairGo4LiveMusic petition to remove the high-risk conditions on liquor licenses for venues and to implement the Agent Of Change in 2010. They can also take credit for getting Melbourne Music Week off the ground through the hard work of Councillor Cathy Oke. They are broadly on board, as are the Australian Sex Party who have stated that they would like to see 1% of the arts budget directed to contemporary music. If you do the math that works out to be $1.95 million over four years, slightly less than the amount committed by Labor, but as we are coming off such a low base, even small numbers are bigger than the neglected situation that the contemporary music sector has historically received. As Ben Eltham (freelance arts journo and critic) once observed, the renovation budget for the loading bay at the Hamer Hall was equivalent to 150 years of contemporary music funding.

We live in interesting times.

Jon Perring is part owner of The Tote and Bar Open, former board member of Music Victoria, member of both Live Music Roundtables and the Live Music Taskforce, signatory to both Live Music Accords and has generally been a pain in the ass of Government for ten years. He is also a guitar player in Slocombe's Pussy and a sound artist.