Labor targets Victorian rock sector for State election
Victoria’s local rock sector will receive a major overhaul by Labor, should the opposition win the election.
Announced today at recording studio Sing Sing in Cremorne, Melbourne, Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews unveiled a plan to build an Australian Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and music industry platform in a $22.2 million package to boost development of the local rock music industry and support local jobs.
Titled ’Music Works’, the package features $10 million in capital works for the Australian Hall of Fame, which is to be based in Melbourne, and a Music Market, a hub for recording and distribution, which will act as headquarters for a new Victorian Music Development Office. The one-stop hub will provide the industry with guidance on grants and exports.
Another $8 million will go toward grants for artists, and the state’s ailing live music scene. Furthermore, The abolished Victoria Rocks grants – which helped Gotye, Clare Bowditch, Dan Sultan and The Temper Trap in the past – will be resurrected to support career development in regional Victoria.
Shadow Arts Minister Martin Foley said the party will offer dollar-for-dollar grants to venues to manage problems with encroachment from neighbours, fix poor acoustics and dodgy PAs and establish a Music Passport for projects, trade delegations and campaigns to take Australian music internationally.
“The Liberals abandoned artists who were trying to build their career,” said Andrews. “It’s hurt the scene and it’s hurt our state.”
In attendance were Ian ‘Molly’ Meldrum and Michael Gudinski, who recently called for action following funding cuts to the Victorian contemporary music sector. “It was very dissappointing to learn that the funding over the past four years has been cut by more than 50% to the previous four-year period,” Gudinski told the Herald Sun.
“It will give so much more to such great Victorian talent that is already proving itself,” said Gudinski today. “When the sun shines we have got to take the opportunity.”