NSW launches the Parliamentary Friends Of Australian Music

Pictured: Hannah Crofts (Photo by Tony Mott)

Last night the NSW Parliamentary Friends Of Australian Music was launched at State Parliament House.

The groupis chaired by three MPs representing the main Australian parties:Ben Franklin(The Nationals),John Graham(Labor) andJohn Sidoti(Liberal).

While it wasn’t as wild as the launch of its Federal counterpart earlier this year – which saw MPs rocking out toDaryl Braithwaiteat Parliament House – lastnight’s event was hosted by triple j’s Zan Rowe and featuredperformances fromMegan Washington, Hannah Crofts (All Our Exes Live In Texas)andRichard Clapton.

Crofts emphasised the administrative and logistical challenges of being in a band, highlighting the areas in which government can offer support beyond creative opportunities.

“On any given day, we talk about logistics, our five year plan, communicate with our US, UK and Australian booking agents,” she said.“We have a financial planner, an accountant, and our manager working with us. We’re dealing with cash flow amongst grant writing, advocacy and local & international touring. We make money through many income streams: publishing, as session vocalists (we did backing vocals onKesha’s latest single), streaming, merch – we’re a big merch band – and corporate gigs.”

NSW is “the commercial centre of the music industry”, being the home of most of the major publishers, labels, major societies and industry associations.

The key takeaways from the launch definedthe main areas of focus for the PFOAM:

• recognising the contribution the music industry makes to our economy, our community and our culture
• songwriters and musicians are small business owners: “we must recognise the impact they have on generations wider employment” opportunities and contribution to the economy.
• support for music industry investment, development and support of music in a wide range of venues
• the importance of education – teaching songwriting and collaboration alongside performance in high schools.