Advocacy Work – June 2024

We only just made it into June, but here is your monthly Advocacy update.

Last night the Allan Labor Government announced that they will trial pill testing. While Music Victoria has always deferred to the health experts’ advice on the topic, the evidence is clear that it does save lives and we look forwarding to hearing more from the ten music festivals and events that will be part of the mobile service trial this summer.

In other advocacy news, we have welcomed further clarification from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regarding alternative assessment locations, where they have provided some practical case studies to aid in the sector’s understanding and implementation of the regulations.

We are also pleased to share our high-level insights gained from the recent industry-wide consultations undertaken over the last three months (in preparation for the Victorian Government’s next creative industries strategy). While the challenges remain quite similar to those articulated by our members in December 2022, there is no doubt that progress has already been made, and together we have now formulated some strong recommendations.

OUR VISION FOR VICTORIA:
A thriving and resilient Victorian contemporary music sector; globally renowned for its pioneering and diverse content, while maintaining its local significance in shaping our culture, community and sense of place; enabled through equitable practices, strong partnerships and innovative people and businesses.

THE CHALLENGES:

• Economic and Market Shifts: rising living costs affecting both audiences and artists, reduced profitability, competition from new media, disrupted consumption patterns, and escalating dominance of international and major businesses.
   
• Regulatory and Operational Pressures: costly, complex, and inconsistent regulatory and compliance requirements, exacerbated by a deficit of operational and financial capacity.

   

• Deficit of Strategic Investment in Long-term Industry Development: to respond to rapid disruption and change arising from new technologies, globalisation, changing consumer demands, decreased risk appetite, and increasing unaffordability and unviability of industry methods and models.

OUR PRIORITIES:

Enhance Our Competitiveness and Extend Our Reach

Objective: Encourage diverse, innovative business models and events, and introduce policies that will safeguard and strengthen our market competitiveness.

Empower Our Industry

Objective: Enhance business and technical skills, streamline event delivery, tax incentives for small and community-focused businesses, targeted support for most disadvantaged artists.

Invest in Long-term Whole-of-Industry Development and Resilience

Objective: Transition to holistic, long-term industry development-focussed strategies and policies that build on strengths of local talent and extends music’s impact to other sectors.

The full paper with further details on our recommended actions will be released next month.

We are so deeply grateful for the time, passion, and trust that each of you as industry stakeholders have extended to us in developing this position. Together we unpacked our motivations, addressed pain points and root causes, examined our value to the community and economy, and identified opportunities and areas of focus to pave the way for a brighter future. Your insights have uncovered exactly what our industry needs to thrive.

We look forward to realising them with you.

Warmly,

Simone and the team at Music Victoria