Job insecurity, poor pay: Australian artists demand a fair go

Australian artists, musicians and performers have called for the introduction of an award wage with guarantees of minimum conditions, superannuation and tax breaks for prize winnings, as the federal government consults the sector to develop a new national cultural policy.

Battered by rolling lockdowns, key figures in the sector have said COVID-19 disruptions exposed job insecurity, poor remuneration, and a thinning of government grants that made a career in arts, entertainment and culture untenable for all but a lucky few.

More support is needed to take The Dismissal on a national tour, says Squabbalogic’s Jay James-Moody.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

A minimum doubling of the budget of the Australia Council for Arts, the federal government’s major arts funding and advisory body, has been advocated in public submissions made ahead of the framing of the federal government’s new national cultural policy.

The road map for Australia’s arts will set policy and funding priorities of the Albanese government and build on Labor’s Creative Australia policy launched in 2013 and scrapped when the Gillard government lost power.

The National Cultural Policy is to be based around “five pillars”, including the centrality of the artist, First Nations participation and Australian stories.

Dedicated funding streams for First Nations artists and galleries, diverse practitioners, mid-scale creative producers, youth theatre, and literature are an unquestioned priority.

Ten per cent of the Australia Council’s boosted budget should be preserved for literature, which receives four per cent of federal arts funding and is also underfunded by most state governments, Writing NSW said.

Artists taking their case for fair pay to Canberra in 2019.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

Theatre Network Australia said employers should, where possible, put artists onto payroll instead of short-term contracts, ensuring these workers receive superannuation and WorkCover protections.

Respect for artists as a career choice begins at school, said the Kimberley Arts Network, with investment in arts education and grassroots arts centres vital.

“In terms of a place for every story, it feels that regional stories have lesser value than urban stories and fewer places to be heard and shared,” the network said.

The Arts Funder Network of Philanthropy Australia suggested the Australia Council scope out the creation of an introductory program in primary schools to introduce families to the benefits of creativity. Such a program, Aus-Arts, would be modelled on the AFL’s Auskick program.

Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre, creator of The Dismissal, said there was no means for it to take its show on a national tour.

Major commercial producers focused on importing already successful overseas shows such as Hamilton and Come From Away, its artistic director Jay James-Moody said. Despite receiving government funding, state theatre companies had an increasingly poor record of supporting the independent and mid-scale sector.

The effect was that this incubation hub for Australian theatre was being stymied, and a limited number of Australian stories were making it to the stage.

The peak lobby for visual artists, NAVA, said an award rate should be established for the visual arts, craft and design sector that mandates the adequate payment of artists and arts workers for their work.

Standard entitlements should be recognised under a national workplace relations system that would mandate artist fees for new works, loans or royalty fees for the exhibition of existing artworks, and licensing fees for the reproduction of artworks in publications, on products and merchandise.

The Fair Work Commission should be able to set such minimum standards for artists and art workers, with the scope and flexibility to deal with “employee-like” forms of work, NAVA’s executive director Penelope Benton said.

Centrelink should introduce income averaging processes for artists so that fees or grants will not be treated as income that jeopardises access to any future JobSeeker payments.

Contemporary Art Organisations Australia, representing 15 independent arts spaces, said sustainable careers required global audiences. Australian artists were unable to participate in residencies, international festivals and Biennales because of a “shift away from international engagement by funding bodies”.

Submissions close Monday, August 22, with a framework to be finalised by December.

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