As the debate over whether there ought to be a minimum wage for musicians and whether or not musicians should ever be expected to play for free continues to rage, the Greens think they may have a solution.
Greens Arts spokesman Adam Bandt is today expected to announce the party’s plans to provide Australia’s artists with a living wage during a debate in Melbourne attended by Arts Minister Mitch Fifield and Labor arts spokesman Mark Dreyfus.
According to Fairfax, Bandt and the Greens would like to see creatives qualify for Centrelink payments if they are making efforts to increase their employability. For example, a musician who plays a free gig.
“By its nature the work of an artist is pretty precarious and few artists are able to make a sustainable living from their art alone,” Bandt, the Greens member for Melbourne, told The Age.
“Most artists have to supplement it with other forms of work. They’re expected to be proficient in their field and always improving. The majority of artists – they’ve been living hand to mouth for most of their working lives.”
“With rising housing costs, including city areas where artists would have lived, that’s making it difficult as well. We are arguing that the [benefits] test should be expanded to the kind of things artists are required to do to improve their craft.”
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“For example, putting on a performance for free, or sharing the work they’ve done as part of an exhibition.” However, Bandt clarified that artists would still be subject to the regular Centrelink income tests to be eligible.
Combined with an increase in the amount of superannuation offset artists can qualify for, Bandt estimates the impact on the budget would be “very modest”, amounting to a combined total of about $20 million a year.
Whilst the thought of an effective minimum wage for musicians sounds like a good idea in principle, it must be considered if such a program would affect how venue owners pay their performers and whether it would essentially endorse unpaid performances.
