Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about the value of artists and musicians, whose contribution to society is currently being undervalued and whose work is exploited. Senator Pocock's bill will remove legislated limits on what radio pays for the use of sound recordings like songs. I support artists and musicians getting paid properly for their work, and I support this bill going to an inquiry so that all the issues relating to artists' exploitation can be addressed. I support what this bill is seeking to do, though I will be advocating to make sure that it is done properly, without unintended consequences such as negative impacts on community radio, which is already running on a shoestring while commercial radio stations bring in huge profits at the expense of the wellbeing of artists.

The value of art in society is incalculable. Music is disarming. It allows us to feel seen and heard. Music speaks truth to power. It helps us hear messages we otherwise would not listen to. As First Peoples, we have music woven into the very fabric of our existence. Music is knowledge, transmitting stories of creation, spirituality and connection to the land and to each other. Music acts as a bridge between the past and the present, a testament to past resilience—to current staunch resilience. For many mob, music is a way to learn and reconnect with language and culture, and my people are still telling our truth through stories. For many blackfellas, it is a lifeline that keeps us connected and able to survive the ongoing violence of the colony.

I will now read out some lines from songs from First Peoples artists. This is No Fixed Address and their song, 'We Have Survived':

We have survived

The white man's world

And the horror and the torment of it all

We have survived

The white man's world

And you know

You can't change that

This is Barkaa's 'Blak Matriarchy':

Can't colonise my blak mind

I'm from the Dreamtime, I go back

They committed genocide through my tracks

They raped our mothers lessened my black

They brought the violence when they attacked

I ain't here to start trouble, I'm just here to state facts

This is Uncle Archie Roach's 'Took the Children Away':

Said to us, "Come, take our hand"

Set us up on mission land

Taught us to read, to write and pray

Then they took the children away

This is Briggs in 'Locked Up':

They put our kids in the system

Findings, reports and royal commissions

Numbers, statistics when they're making decisions

Assess the risks and build another prison

This is Ziggy Ramo's 'Little Things':

Is that your law? 'Cause that's invasion

That's the destruction of five hundred nations

The genocide of entire populations

Which planted the seeds for the stolen generation

And grew into my people's mass incarceration

Now we pass trauma through many generations

The lord can't discover what already existed

For two hundred years, my people have resisted

Yothu Yindi—treaty now!—Thelma Plum, Kutcha Edwards, Shane Howard, AB Original, Briggs, Denny, Warumpi Band, Coloured Stone, Uncle Archie Roach, Auntie Ruby Hunter, Kev Carmody, King Stingray, Ziggy Ramo, Baker Boy, Dan Sultan, Lajamanu Teenage Band, Emily Wurramara—these artists and many more paved the way for future First Peoples artists to imagine and create a radically different country, to stand up and speak out, to bring public attention and understanding, to shed a light on racism, land rights, incarceration, genocide and police brutality. They deserve to be properly paid for their work. For decades, the Western colonial system has undermined and undervalued artists who create and play music. While governments like to harp on about their support for the arts, we know that so much of this money goes to big industry and event companies, leaving the artists, who are the bedrock of the industry, struggling for scraps.

Around 17 million Australians listen to commercial radio and audio each year. Audience numbers have grown by almost 14 per cent in the five years to 2023. Radio is brought to you in three main ways. Firstly, and most importantly, there is community radio. Community radio is such a core foundation of the world of radio, and it is where the best independent artists, activists and thinkers are usually found. On it are the likes of my uncle Robbie Thorpe, presenter of Melbourne community radio station 3CR's Fire First program, where some important truth-telling occurs every week to educate people about historical and ongoing black struggles for justice. Community radio operates under the same regulations as commercial radio but undergoes separate negotiations. Community radio does not have anywhere near the same revenue as big commercial stations.

Secondly, it is through the ABC and SBS, which includes triple j, ABC Classic FM and local services. The ABC pays $0.005—half a cent—per person in Australia for all the songs you listen to. Multiply this by 26 million people and you see that the ABC pays only $130,000 per year for all of the songs it plays—no matter how many times it plays them per year on your behalf.

Thirdly, you have Commercial Radio Australia, an industry organisation that represents the 260 plus commercial radio stations around the country. Who owns most of the industry? It's not surprising to learn that people like Kerry Stokes and Murdoch have their fair share of the pie in their continued monopoly over the information we read, the music we listen to and the voices that are amplified. Commercial radio is a highly profitable industry with annual revenues in excess of $1 billion. Advertising revenue in the last financial year for metropolitan commercial radio stations only was around $700 million per year. Where does this money go? Not to the artists. Last year commercial radio paid only $4.4 million approximately for the use of all recordings across its 260 plus stations, with only half of this going to artists, and that is shared between thousands. Standing in the way of money flowing to artists is a 55-year-old law from 1989 that currently protects commercial radio and the ABC from paying more. The effect of the cap is to impose a substantial penalty on recording artists and record labels by forcing them to provide a significant annual subsidy to the commercial radio sector.

But you know who does get paid a handsome sum? Commercial radio's Kyle Sandilands, whose salary is around $5 million per year. Yet commercial radio, who have built their entire business model on music, say that they cannot afford to pay more money to artists. They threaten to scrap funding to regional radio stations instead of cutting the salary of a man who is as obsolete as the coal and gas projects that this government keeps approving.

Stakeholders have told us that the decision of whether the cap get scrapped could end up being a captain's call. This means it could be in the hands of the Prime Minister, who went to the wedding of Kyle Sandilands earlier this year. But, luckily for the government and PM, this decision should be easy. Firstly, this bill aligns with the current Revive cultural policy, and the Labor government said it is committed to maintaining a strong copyright framework that works in concert with other legal and policy mechanisms. Secondly, no decision made by the parliament on this bill will directly cost radio a single dollar. It will simply remove a cap on payments and allow parties to negotiate a fairer industry rate. This is just one of the issues in what requires a whole-of-industry solution that covers all of the issues and properly pays all of the players. The music industry as a whole is fraught with issues, and the exploitation of artists is pervasive.

Income from radio is even more important as other sources of revenue have dwindled to nothing. Streaming platforms like Spotify can end up costing artists more than they earn. The live music industry was left to crumble by government's lack of support through COVID and thereafter. Live music in cities has been demolished by urbanisation. Government policy has created conditions that destroy creativity, with a reliance on a gig economy and labour exploitation to fund functions that could be full-time positions. Australia is one of few countries that doesn't pay session musicians ongoing royalties, driving talented musicians overseas.

We need new media monopoly laws, government advertising subsidies, investment in regional radio, startup funding for new communication technologies and proper funding of community radio. Research shows that the people in this country care about music, care about art, care about culture and are willing to pay for it. It's time to scrap the cap and support our artists.