Steven Ciobo (Moncrieff, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business, Independent Contractors, Tourism and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate about the Rudd government’s commitment to the arts and, in this particular case, the government’s commitment to visual artists. The notion of introducing resale royalties in Australia has been discussed periodically for some 20 years now. I certainly look forward to the government releasing the full details of their proposal so the debate in these times can be a fully informed one. I join with the minister in recognising the work of Aboriginal artists. Today the arts and cultural sectors in Australia are recognised worldwide for our exemplary Australian visual, performing and literary artists and art companies. It is estimated that cultural industries contribute around 3.3 per cent of Australia’s domestic production, worth almost $38 billion a year. At the 2001 census, more than 270,000 Australians were listed as being employed in cultural industries. The coalition recognises that Australian arts and culture are characterised by a rich diversity of art forms practised across the breadth of this vast country. We support the arts and are determined to ensure that all regions of Australia are able to benefit from the cultural and economic benefits of a strong and secure arts sector.

Australia’s Indigenous art is becoming increasingly renowned around the world for its quality and its unique style. Importantly, Indigenous art generates employment and cultural activity, as well as significant economic opportunity in Indigenous communities. Functioning art centres contribute to a healthy community as these centres play a crucial role in broader family and community social support. They are generally owned and controlled by Indigenous people and facilitate the production of art by Indigenous people. In many remote communities art centres provide a major source of self-generated income, as well as providing an important platform for cultural maintenance and education. The Indigenous art industry includes some major success stories such as Papunya Tula artists in Kintore in Central Australia. This Aboriginal owned enterprise is built around the successful art practice of around 150 artists, attracting substantial national and international interest. From humble beginnings in the 1970s, the company is now fully self-sufficient with a gallery in Alice Springs and generating enough profits to support specific community projects such as dialysis facilities, a community swimming pool and the construction of a new arts centre building.

The coalition is committed to supporting Indigenous art and culture by ensuring real economic and social benefits for the sector, its sustainability and its future needs. As the speech of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts today highlighted, once again the Rudd government is all too interested in symbolism without a care for actually delivering meaningful outcomes to Australia’s visual artists. We speak today on the government’s proposed resale royalty scheme for which the legislation that will govern the proposed scheme is yet to be released, even as a draft. Of course, the minister is happy to refer the House to those in the arts sector who may support the scheme on the details available thus far, but he has ignored those concerns that do exist about this proposal.

The coalition is committed to better outcomes for Australia’s visual artists and has a strong track record in delivering for them. In the 2006-07 budget, the then coalition government delivered a $6 million package over four years to provide meaningful targeted assistance to visual artists, regardless of whether their work reached the secondary market. This package included $500,000 per annum for a training package to help visual artists enhance their engagement with the commercial arts market and $1 million per annum to strengthen the Indigenous visual arts industry in regional and remote communities. This funding was designed to provide direct benefits to Australian artists, the support of which, of course, extended beyond just late career artists and the estates of deceased artists. The coalition delivered record levels of funding to the arts sector. Funding for the Australia Council to provide arts grants at arm’s length from government increased by more than 220 per cent since the last Labor budget in 1995-96. Last year, more than eight million Australians attended Australia Council cultural activities.

As we all know too well, when it comes to Labor Party policy the devil is most certainly in the detail. The coalition will, of course, carefully examine the legislation that Labor puts forward on this proposal. The minister refers to the 2002 report by the current Chairman of the National Gallery of Australia, Rupert Myer. I note that this report was commissioned by the then coalition government. The Myer report noted that the effects that resale royalties would have on the Australian art market are unclear. The Myer report concluded that such a scheme may benefit artists in the following ways: by providing artists with a contingent income stream which is not currently available; by empowering artists by allowing them to enjoy a direct economic benefit from the success of the work; and by recognising the ongoing relationship between the artist and their work and the extent to which an artist’s reputation is linked to the physical products of their creative labour.

Following the Myer report, a discussion paper on a proposed resale royalty arrangement was released by the then Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. This report noted that it is often argued that implementing a resale royalty scheme would increase the income of contemporary visual artists. In the Australian context, and indeed in the context of the current proposal by the government, this is presented as being particularly important for Indigenous artists. Research presented in the report suggested that, in terms of income supplementation, resale royalty schemes bring most benefit to successful late career artists with strong reputations whose work is regularly traded and only brings limited benefits for emerging and less successful artists.

I have been made aware of concerns within the arts sector at the current right of term proposals. I am advised the experiences of similar schemes overseas have shown collecting royalties for deceased artists and their estates can be more difficult to track, creating an unnecessary administrative burden on art resellers and collecting agencies. I understand the United Kingdom scheme currently applies to living artists only. I look forward to the government’s response to these concerns.

The government has not yet clarified whether the royalty will apply to the hammer price achieved at auction or whether premiums and taxes applied to art resales will be included in the sale price subject to the royalty. I am advised that similar schemes in the United Kingdom and Europe apply a maximum threshold of €12,500 for any single work each time it is sold. The intention of this cap is to prevent high-value artworks being sold offshore. The government has not clarified why it has not adopted such a cap nor has it acknowledged the implications of such a decision.

There exists some uncertainty about which transactions will be encompassed by the government’s scheme. Will electronic intermediaries be treated differently from traditional resellers in determining whether a transaction is a public or a private one? Would, for example, eBay be treated as an auction house in the same way as Sotheby’s or Bonhams and Goodman. The government is yet to answer these questions. Ignoring the concerns which exist in the sector will not serve the minister well. Indeed, doing so will only foster an alternative, black market for artwork sales in Australia or a resulting offshore market, both of which will disadvantage visual artists, art collectors and art resellers alike. Certainly an alternative private art market in Australia would raise additional issues surrounding artwork title and insurance and only serve to destabilise the Australian arts sector and our national collecting institutions.

I have committed to consulting widely with the industry before the coalition concludes a position on the government’s proposal, and I look forward to meeting with visual artists and their representatives as well as art resellers and collectors and the intermediaries. While I await the opportunity to view to draft legislation on the government’s proposed scheme, I am pleased to commit the coalition to ensuring the welfare of our visual artists, having taken all the matters I have raised today and others fully into account.

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