Film & TV Given COVID Support As Live Music Left In The Dark
Events across the country continue to be cancelled.
The Federal Government has announced a $50 million extension of the Temporary Interruption Fund to help the film and TV industry through the continued uncertainty of the COVID-19 panic.
In response, the live music and entertainment sector is once again calling on Minister for the Arts, Paul Fletcher, to employ a similar scheme for live music and events across the country.
This includes key industry bodies AAM, AFA, ALMBC, AMIN, APRA AMCOS, ARIA, PPCA, LEIF and Live Performance Australia calling on the Federal and State Governments to delivery a government-backed insurance scheme that will help the music sector survive the Omicron crisis.
The live music industries have been calling for a similar scheme for the past 18 months with the queries falling on deaf ears.
While Victoria has already delivered an insurance scheme for live music, it's been repeatedly stated that a national approach is needed "if the live music and entertainment industry is going to 'ride this wave', survive and play its role living with the virus".
Australia is now behind New Zealand, the UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Denmark and Estonia in delivering a solution to this issue.
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Speaking with The Music earlier this week about the country's latest COVID restrictions, which are having a major impact on live music, APRA AMCOS Chief Executive Dean Ormston said “the ‘let’s wait and see’ approach is not going to cut it for the thousands of Australians who rely on work in the music and entertainment sector”.
“Collectively our industry has been calling on the federal, state and territory governments to support ‘business interruption insurance’,” he said.
“It’s great the Victorian govt has launched an event interruption insurance scheme, but where are the other states, and territories? This is a national issue - state and federal. We’re a national $16bn+ industry.
“We need and want to work with governments in supporting community health, and ensuring we have a future live music and entertainment industry. We need more than hope, we need good policy, planning and targeted funding based on the fact we’ll be living with COVID in some shape and form for a while.
“As priorities…we need to ensure ongoing emergency funding for the work of Support Act, and business and event interruption insurance that’s available nationally.”
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