BREAKING: Senate passes motion for increased community digital radio funding, while House debates dodgy concert tickets

As Federal Parliament sits this week before its winter break, two issues were raised that directly affect the music industry.

This morning the Senate passed Derryn Hinch’s motion that the Commonwealth increase its funding contribution for community digital radio.

With support from Senator Jacqui Lambie, the Nick Xenophon team and the Greens, Senator Hinch called for funding to rise to $4.5 million per annum in 2018/9 and “commit to funding community radio at that level, indexed, on an ongoing basis.”

Senate passed my motion to guarantee community radio funding $4.5m for 2018-19. Tnx Xenophon, Greens & Lambie for co-sponsoring.

— Justice Party Au (@JusticePartyAu) June 22, 2017

The motion comes as the Senate debates changing media ownership rules, which would make the role of the independence and diversity of the community radio sector even more important.

The Hinch motion points out that of the 5 million Australians who tune into community radio each week, its “listeners are disproportionately more likely to identify as indigenous, religious, LGBTIQ, from a culturally or linguistically diverse background, or as living with a disability (and) that these interests are not adequately served by commercial radio.”

Jon Bisset, CEO of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia (CBAA) told TMN that “having such a strong support for all sides of government is a fantastic position to be in, as is the fact that they acknowledge the importance and diversity of community radio.”

Bissetadded that increased funding would “add certainty and sustainability to the sector. Like commercial radio, community radio also has its challenges and needs to keep evolving.”

The CBAA has stepped up its lobbying of the major parties and back-benchers in the last two months.

In May, the Government provided $3.9 million over two years, as part of a $6.1 million package, to address the shortfall in community radio’s adoption of digital, and to assist the regional rollout to Canberra, Darwin and Hobart.

The CBAA asked for an increase of $2.2 million from ongoing forward estimates. It makes sense as commercial radio is also up for massive savings.

Tony Burke MP, Shadow Minister for the Arts, has also called on the Government to explain what is being done about disciplining websites selling fake tickets which are not honoured at the venue door, and which also stretch the truth in their marketing.

He said that music fans who google a band’s name are taken by search engines to unauthorised sites and, he said, have n o idea they are dealing with a ticket scalper.

MP Windsor told Parliament, “It is impossible to be serious about anything in arts or cultural policy without also defending the right of concertgoers, of people who want to enjoy and experience the arts, and, effectively, defending the audience as well.

“Without the audience being able to attend these events and without the audience being able to trust the pathway by which they get tickets to attend events, the whole system falls over.”

He said that in the publicity surrounding Paul McCartney’s tour, he had googled the British superstar’s name – to be directed to a “Paul McCartney concert” on July 22 at the Astor Theatre in Perth, which is in his Watson electorate.

It’s when he checked the venue’s website that he discovered it was a McCartney tribute show.

Anyone not familiar with resale sites, he said, could have been deceived into thinking they were buying an entry to the real act.

Burke’s motion was seconded by Member for Macquarie Susan Templeman (who recalled her days of going to concerts, and revealed her son was a bassist in Julia Jacklin’s band) and Member for Perth Tim Hammond.

He told the Parliament, “It goes to the heart of a very, very serious issue. [It] is simply that, in today’s society, notwithstanding a technical breach of ’misleading and deceptive conduct’, this practice is now so widespread that, without the government acting upon this motion brought by the honourable member for Watson, we risk seeing this conduct perpetrated time and time again.”