Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I speak in support of the Tax Laws Amendment (Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists) Bill 2009. I was pleased to be at the national conference of the ALP and to support this legislation when it was originally proposed in the form of a policy statement before the 2007 federal election. Our policy statement was titled ‘New directions for the arts’ and that is what this is all about. I am very supportive of the many arts societies and collectives and galleries in my electorate of Blair in South-East Queensland.

The legislation before this chamber deals with tax and how the collecting society will not be taxed for the purpose of assessable income in relation to moneys received concerning the resale of artworks. The situation is that the arts play an important role in our community, whether in national life or at the local level. This was acknowledged by former Labor Prime Minister John Curtin in 1942, when he distinctly commented on it at the height of Australia’s involvement in a conflict which could have seen us invaded. When we were under threat from the Japanese empire, he made it very clear that the pursuit of the arts and culture was crucial to a young democratic nation, and it was the measure of our development as a nation that we focused on those pursuits. So it was a Labor government under him, and later under Chifley, and later under Whitlam, that promoted the arts, whether drama or music or theatre or the visual arts, which promoted our culture and which promoted our development.

Gough Whitlam, the former Labor Prime Minister, said that the arts should not be remote from society but should be central to our culture. That is what Labor governments through history have supported. The substantive legislation will benefit up to 20,000 people who are involved in visual art. This legislation, which enhances the scheme that we are undertaking, helps the people who develop our national identity and recognise our long history and enduring culture, our Indigenous people—those from the Torres Strait and our Aboriginal brothers and sisters—whose artwork, sadly, at times is despoiled by people who take advantage and counterfeit it.

What we are doing here is enabling the tax laws to better line up with income so that the collecting agency is not taxed. One of the things that really infuriate companies and individuals in dealing with the tax system that we have in this country is when there are transfers of money or land, or restructuring of corporate arrangements, and no income is actually earned or needs to be assessed, and they are subject to complicated tax laws that deal with corporate structures and trusts. We cannot have a situation in this country which is adverse to the taxpayers of this country in that way. This legislation is about ensuring that our complex trust taxation laws and rules do not impinge on the collecting agency and in effect there is no double-dipping when it comes to taxation.

This government has made it clear that it is determined to establish a resale royalty scheme for visual artists, allocating $1.5 million in the budget of 2008-09, as the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts announced on 13 May 2008. This scheme that we intend to establish is important for our economy but it is also important for our national identity and our community activities. We will assist artists to get fair payment for their works—proper recognition of their talent, skill and capacity as demonstrated in the artwork they so lovingly develop. This will provide an additional source of income for artists and bring us in line with so many advanced Western economies, in Europe and elsewhere.

The independent collecting society which is established under the substantive bill will collect the money. When there is a resale of a piece of art such as a painting, a drawing, a sculpture, a photograph, an item of glassware or some other such artwork, the artist will receive up to about five per cent when those original artworks are resold through the market for more than $1,000. We hope this will continue beyond the artist’s life so that the beneficiaries in their estates, whether in intestacy or under will, will benefit as well from the artwork developed.

Labor is strongly committed to ensuring that we have a better system to recognise the value of people in the arts. I love sport—absolutely love it—Brisbane Broncos tragic that I am. I played a lot of sport when I was younger. But it must be recognised that more people visit our art galleries in this country than attend sporting activities. We may see 100,000 people at the MCG or 40,000 at Suncorp Stadium or tens of thousands at Parramatta Stadium, but the truth is more people visit art galleries and are interested in the arts than are interested in sport in this country. Art is not given the recognition it deserves in our cultural and community life.

The legislation that is before this chamber ensures, as I said, that the resale royalty collecting society is not taxed on the amount it collects and holds on behalf of artists. What will be established, in effect, is a trust arrangement where the society holds that money in trust. If you establish a unit trust, it is likely that there will be tax on income that is brought into the unit trust. It is the same with respect to a family trust or even a discretionary family trust: income is often taxed unless the money is disbursed to the beneficiaries under the family trust. So there is a risk that the tax laws will impinge and adversely affect artists and the collecting society.

As the shadow minister outlined, the changes are accurate. What we are doing here is making it clear that the collecting society is not to be taxed on income it derives. It is subject to certain limits as well: five per cent of its total income or $5 million, whichever is the lesser. There is the streamlining of tax treatment, which replicates what happens with respect to copyright payments handled by copyright collecting societies. There are also some technical amendments replacing references to copyright income and non-copyright income with general terms and making sure they are consistent across copyright arrangements as well as the resale royalty arrangements.

The arts are so important at a national level, but they are also important at a local level, as I will explain in a minute. A body will be established, a collecting society, which will apply in relation to the holding of money. A body can apply to the arts minister to be a collecting society for the purposes of the royalty scheme. The arts minister has the discretion, as he or she should have, to appoint a body as a collecting society. That body must be a company limited by guarantee. In other words, there are no shares in relation to that company. I established dozens and dozens of companies limited by guarantee when I was in legal practice. The members of the company are usually the directors. I established many for churches and charitable institutions. They hold the assets, usually preferring to establish a company limited by guarantee rather than, say, in Queensland, being associated or incorporated under the Associations Incorporation Act. This is a useful corporate entity, and it is different from a public company or a proprietary limited company.

As I said, the resale royalty rights scheme and legislation that is before this chamber will help my local area. I want to speak about how and why it will. In South-East Queensland, as the population has continued to grow—and we expect another 1.2 million people to come to South-East Queensland in the next 20 years—we have seen a burgeoning outside of Brisbane of interest in the arts, particularly visual art. You can see that in small areas outside Brisbane, as they continue to expand—for example, in Ipswich, in the Somerset region, in the Lockyer Valley and in the Scenic Rim area. In the Scenic Rim area, the Boonah Arts Collective, which runs the very successful SPAR Arts Festival every year, has seen an incredible interest in visual arts. Literally hundreds of works are displayed in Boonah and Kalbar in that festival, and there are hundreds of people involved.

Good friends of mine, Sharon Murakami and Julie Jackson, were actively involved in that society. Clive Beaton is the current secretary. The committee meet four to five times a year and annually for their AGM. They promote the arts tremendously well. The artists often show their artwork in Ipswich and elsewhere. Last Saturday night I had the pleasure of being at the Laidley Art Society, where artists from the Scenic Rim area were showing their wares. I was a major sponsor of the Boonah Arts Collective and the SPAR Arts Festival. At Laidley, where I am the patron of the Laidley Art Society, tremendous quality artwork was shown. I congratulate all those people involved. It was a tremendous night to see the quality and the character of the local area. There were paintings and photography of local icons in towns like Laidley, Boonah and elsewhere on display. It was a credit to the Laidley Art Society and I am happy to have been associated with it. They have done a great job. I want to congratulate President Terry Merrick and Phillipa Van Glist. Phillipa describes herself as the ‘dog’s body’—she does just about everything for the society. I was pleased to be there and congratulate them and open the festival.

You see a burgeoning number of people actively involved in the arts in places like the Somerset region. I was pleased to be at Lowood on 10 October at the opening of the Open Door Gallery at 45 Railway Street. Michelle Pakleppa and the President of the Lowood Lions, Keith Leese, were there along with the Mayor of the Somerset Regional Council, Graeme Lehmann, and the state member for Ipswich West, Wayne Wendt. I said at that opening that it was a demonstration of a community that clearly cared about each other and the arts. That gallery was initially started to help youth in the area but has been turned into a facility that everyone can use. It is a creative outlet for the area. We have already seen a lot of people visit that gallery. Michelle tells me that they have sold a number of pieces of artwork in that gallery and of course they will benefit. The people in those areas will benefit from the substantive legislation and the legislation that is before the chamber today.

I want to talk about my hometown briefly and how it is going to benefit through this legislation. Ipswich—and I am proud to wear the Ipswich pride pin today—has the largest regional gallery in Queensland. It is the most visited regional art gallery in Australia. It runs a lively audience centred program in the visual arts. There are also a lot of social history exhibitions and ongoing collaboration with local artists, educators and historians. I could listen to Michael Beckmann, the Director of the Ipswich Art Gallery, for hours. My wife, Carolyn, and I were at the Ipswich Arts Foundation earlier this year for a fundraiser. Thousands and thousands of dollars were raised that evening for the Ipswich Art Gallery. Michael is an enthusiast. Where he gets the works from is extraordinary. He has been a wonderful advocate for the local community in Ipswich. The Ipswich Arts Foundation, which was established back in 1997, is ably led by Sandy Horneman-Wren, a barrister and a good friend of mine. The patrons are Sir Llew Edwards, the former member for Ipswich and former Deputy Premier of Queensland, and, of course, my good friend Paul Pisasale, the Mayor of the City of Ipswich

The arts foundation does a wonderful job to promote local artists. I have been to many exhibitions, but one exhibition of very spectacular art by local artist Andrew Spark really captured my attention. Andrew is a mate of mine and he does a great job in promoting and helping business for the chamber of commerce but also in showing his very creative abstract form of art. People like Andrew will benefit from the legislation before the chamber today. We have seen arts blossom through the area, and I commend the Ipswich City Council for its support. My own local councillor is Charlie Pisasale. Charlie is the Chairperson of the Arts, Community and Cultural Services Committee—a very long title. Charlie has been actively involved in the Ipswich Arts Foundation and the Ipswich Arts Foundation Trust, which raised nearly $9 million through grants, subscriptions, philanthropy and sponsorship to benefit the Ipswich Art Gallery and the City of Ipswich collection since it was established in 1987. A budget through the Ipswich City Council in 2009-10 of $50,000 will support the foundation and the trust operations. All of these local groups, foundations and galleries will benefit from the legislation that is before the chamber. I strongly believe that the arts will continue to prosper in Ipswich and the rural West Moreton area.

I want to finish by noting just how important this sort of thing is to the cultural history of my area and elsewhere, acknowledging the wonderful support of the University of Queensland Ipswich campus and showing how history, culture and the arts can link. The University of Queensland Ipswich campus supported the Peter Harley: an Ipswich woodcarver exhibition, which was displayed in February 2009 in the Ipswich Art Gallery. The University of Queensland Ipswich campus occupies the site of the Challinor Centre. Two pieces created by Mr Harley were on display. With the assistance of the university, Professor Alan Rix, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor, and the Ipswich Art Gallery over 60 pieces on loan were displayed. The amazing creativity of this man is interesting. He was in an asylum for much of his life. He was 35 years of age when he came to the attention of the Rockhampton police for being confused and unable to give a clear account of himself. He had no woodcarving tools in his possession when he was detained. It appears he took up woodcarving after he was institutionalised in the Challinor Centre in Ipswich. He was transferred to Ipswich in 1908 and spent the remaining years of his life there. If a man like Peter Harley can create works that today we still look at, cherish and value, imagine how what we are doing in this scheme will benefit artists now and in the future. This legislation is innovative and creative and, importantly, will help the financial security and the future prosperity of our arts. I commend the legislation before the House.

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