TRANSCRIPT: RADIO INTERVIEW - ABC RADIO MELBOURNE - JUNE 2, 2020

E&OE TRANSCRIPT 
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC RADIO MELBOURNE WITH VIRGINIA TRIOLI
TUESDAY, 2 JUNE 2020

SUBJECTS: Arts and entertainment workers.

VIRGINIA TRIOLI, HOST: Part of the economy that needed rescuing right from the beginning and really didn't get it were our creative industries. It's a figure I've repeated to you ad nauseum, it's worth $111 billion dollars to the economy. The government assumed that JobKeeper might actually sweep up a few of those workers who work in the creative industries - it did some but not a lot. And as you know companies small and large teeter on the edge. They're burning right through their reserves right now in order to survive. Well there's some kind of a rescue package that's being considered, after much pleading from state arts ministers and premiers as well. We understand there's a proposal that's about to go to the expenditure review committee and we hope to have some inside information on that for you very very soon. We couldn't speak to the minister responsible for that this morning, Paul Fletcher, but the Shadow Minister for the Arts and Industrial Relations, who's been calling for some sort of rescue package, Tony Burke, was able to speak to us. Tony Burke good morning. 

TONY BURKE, SHADOW MINISTER FOR THE ARTS: Hi Virginia.

TRIOLI: What should the federal government do in order to try and help rescue the entertainment sector and the creative industries?

BURKE: Well there's a lot of hope around at the moment. It's been three months that the sector which was pretty much the first to be shut down, ever since the ban happened on 50 if you're outdoors and 100 if you're indoors, they were the first industry shut down. And so there's a lot of hope that finally the government has recognised there's a problem. Because we've been calling for there to be a package all of that time. I think what they need to do, and there's different ways of doing it, but what matters is that they hit both sorts of groups. There are the companies that employ artists, technicians, labourers, all the people who are responsible for bringing performance together. And then there are the workers themselves, and the workers themselves have largely been locked out of JobKeeper. Some of them because of lumpy income had problems with JobSeeker as well. But what matters is that the government deals with both. Now what's been put into the newspapers today says that they're looking at the employer side of it and that's important. And that's really going to matter. They're also going to need to make sure that they do something about the people who work for those companies, because they certainly shouldn't and I don't see how they can be, left at a loose end not for months and months and months while we wait for the industry to be opened back up.

TRIOLI: From what I understand the government made the assumption that a lot of those workers themselves were going to be sole traders and therefore would be scooped up by JobKeeper. But of course that's not the case for a number of them.

BURKE: Yeah and this is where right at the start, Paul Fletcher, the arts minister, put out a media release saying JobKeeper is going to be wonderful for the arts community. And it was put back to his office and put back publicly including by me and by arts organisations straight away, no you've designed it in a way that they won't be eligible. So if you take a theatre company or a show, the people working in admin who are permanently attached to the company, they were eligible for JobKeeper. But the people who put the show on are usually employed as short-term casuals. So it's good that the admin staff are recovered but you know the person who holds the spotlight, the person who's on the stage, the person holding the drill who puts the set together - they're all short-term casuals largely and none of them were eligible for JobKeeper. And I've got to say I do think it's a bit rich for the government to be putting out there in the papers today that ‘oh we thought they'd all be sole traders and we've only just worked that out’. They've been told for three months that this huge gap was existing. And I think people found a particularly cruel when these were the same people who only days before COVID-19 arrived were being asked to perform and work for free in bushfire benefits to make sure they were looking after the rest of the community. And the moment they hit the fence the community wasn't looking after them.

TRIOLI: What about the underwriting of companies or of operations? Because the key problem for many of these, all the large and medium-sized companies really, is going to be physical and social distancing. They might be able to get the show back on the road but you'll have so few people in the audience that it just won't be financially viable. What's the solution to that?

BURKE: There's a few different ways that the government can approach that and I'm not being specific quite deliberately because anything they do in this space I'm going to welcome. We’ll still point out if there are areas where it can be done better but I want to be in a position that we are welcoming any help where help is so desperately needed. But you're right, the industry doesn't even have a plan yet to be told what how social distancing will be gradually staggered down. So for the rest of the economy, you'd remember a few weeks ago the prime minister came out of national cabinet with here are the three stages of what it looks like to be opening up the economy. Now, you've got through all three of those stages and most live performance still wasn't allowed to happen. So the industry needs a guide. Will it be that they're expected to have every second row? Or will it be that they can fill the place if people are wearing masks and there's plenty of sanitizer? What would the staged process look like? Industry can then start planning and once they start knowing how they can plan around it, that then answers the question that you have that you've put to me Virginia. Because it's at that point that they can say ‘Okay well this means we need 80 per cent full to be commercial. You've given us a plan that means we can get to 60 per cent or 70 per cent’ -
 
TRIOLI: So you have to pick up the shortfall.

BURKE: And then you have that sort of option being worked through but it's impossible to calculate at the moment because the government hasn't provided that sort of pathway, which would give business at least some certainty on being able to plan. And some of the certainty would be bad, because this will be one of the very last industries to be fully back to normal. But any certainty at the moment would help.

TRIOLI: How many companies, small, large, medium-size are not going to be able to emerge out of this COVID-19 down period?

BURKE: I don't know the answer to that and I'm worried about the answer to that. And the answer to that will largely be determined by what the government announces this week. I’m amazed so many have been able to hang on over these last three months when the systems that have been put in place largely drew a fence around an industry that contributes $111 billion dollars a year to the economy. We're talking about a serious proportion of the workforce. I'm surprised that more haven't hit the fence. I live in Sydney as you know and up here with Carriageworks, when that hit the fence, that was sort of the first big name. But there are already small companies all over the place that have looked at their books and have no idea what they're going to be able to do. Some of the most established companies that we have are going to be in serious financial trouble and they need two things: one, they need support right now; and two they need guidance that will allow them to plan for how to get back on their feet. I mean a whole lot of the companies have been doing work during this time. If you if you're on Instagram or social media, there are lots of live performances, keeping a relationship with their audience, but almost all of that is being put online for free. There's a very limited amount that's out there that's behind a paywall and sometimes when something is put up on a paywall because of some of the hopeless copyright laws we've got it just gets ripped and put up for free somewhere else anyway. So you know, while people will think ‘oh yeah the companies are all still out there, they're seeing them’ - there's a real a real risk at the moment that on the other side, even when every restriction is lifted, arts, culture and entertainment in Australia is going to look fundamentally different to what we've all been used to.

TRIOLI: Well hopefully we get to find out what the federal government is considering once all of this goes to the expenditure review committee. Tony Burke, I'm glad you could talk to us this morning, thanks for coming on.

BURKE: Can I just say if they get it right this will be a really exciting time. I'll tell you there's going to be a hell of a lot of Australian stories coming out of this period that we want to be told. And that first big event that we all get back to, it's going to be one huge celebration.

TRIOLI: Well I know you've got a fondness for your guitar so there's no doubt we're seeing some involvement there as well. Good to talk to you.

ENDS