Labor Party pledge millions to neglected Aussie music industry

They’re calling it ‘Renewing Creative Australia’ and it’s all about putting the mojo back into the Australia’s neglected music and arts scene. Ahead of the federal election, the Labor Party have announced the first major investment into music and arts in Australia since they last took office 6 years ago.

In their funding blueprint, over millions will be invested across an eclectic array of activities including:

$10 million to support Sounds Australia who famously export Aussie music to the rest of the world (the likes of Flume and more have played on their stages at important music conferences)
$5 million over five years to Mental Health organisation Support Act and ongoing funding of $200,000 to deliver a comprehensive mental health program
$3.5 million for stage 3 of the Woodford Festival’s plan to make their unique set up an all year round facility for music, arts and culture
$3.5 million towards multicultural arts and festivals celebrating Multicultural Australia
$2.7 million to indigenous music programs
$2.1 million to the Australian Independent Record Labels Association (AIR)
$1 million over five years to Music Therapy that’s proven effective in aged care homes, special needs services and more
$1 million to regional arts programs for remote artists
and that’s just skimming the surface!

Another initiative in the Labor Party’s line of sight is thankfully ticket scalping. Their policy is that they want to cap the resale price of tickets to 110% and ban those pesky ticket-buying bots (damn you A.I!!!).

The Liberal Party on the other hand, have been very frugal on music and arts spending in general. It feels like a change of government may very well be the answer the industry has been so desperately waiting for.