The Art Neuro Weblog

Meet Mr. Joe Hockey, MP, Minister for Small Businesses and Tourism
Mr. Martin Bedford of Bedford and Pearce Management organised an informal lobbying get together with the local member for North Sydney and the North Shore film making fraternity. For some accident of timing and meetings, I was invited by Martin and so was able to listen in and contribute to the din tonight.

The quick and short version of it was that Mr. Hockey was fronting up because there are over 300 small businesses of the Film Industry operating in his electorate, and maybe he ought to get to know their concerns. Mr. Hockey for his part was congenial and tried to explain the concerns the Coalition had with the arts industry in general. It was a lot more productive than I thought.
Mr. Hockey's position could be summarised as follows:
1) The film industry ought to be an industry.
2) To that end, the projects that get developed should be more commercial.
3) There's no point throwing more money at it sporadically, there needs to be structural change. - so he asked "Tell me where it should change."
4) Script development has been identified as a crucial area. So the government is trying to change funding to help develop more scripts.

Well, we had a few things we thought could change. In fact, in classic artneuro fashion, I got up and quizzed him about a few things and got some dialogue going. I pointed out how the FFC had essentially let the industry down. I asked how much money the Federal Government spent on the FFC. He said $150 million per year. I then rhetorically asked him if they ever turned a profit - In fact, how does the government feel about this colossal loss-making operation, year after year? Mr. Hockey responded it's really tough to justify to the electorate that their tax money is being spent this way. He wanted to know why. I pointed out that the bureaucracy was stifling. Others pointed out that there were whole loops of people who were fattening their backpockets while they sat in the FFC offices. The Red Tape; the stupid selection criteria; the miserable forms that never seem to end; the pigeon-holing; the inertness; the commercial insensitivity. The room came alive with those concerns.

There were some industry people present who argued the government spent too much money on sport and not enough on the arts, but Mr. Hockey pointed out that the sports funding budget was $120 million compared to the FFC. In fact, the entire combined arts industries got over $600 million per year; plus the money spent on the ABC and SBS. So obviously it's not as if the Federal Government was short on intent or will to support the cultural industries. It was a point many in the room found hard to take, but I could see the reasoning there. Give credit where it's due; the Federal Government of both the Coalition and Labor varieties have spent tonnes of money on the arts. What was there to show for the expenditure when the head of SPAA says the industry is stuffed. Mr. Hockey wanted to know how did that money get spent?

Mr. Hockey further pointed out that people in the Liberal Party feel very leery about the cultural industries because compared to other business sectors, the cultural industries alone choose to never acknowledge the efforts the Coalition Government make. And so over the years the Liberal Party has become even more distrustful of the cultural industries than when they started this run of terms of government. What did seem to make an impression on Mr. Hockey was the fact that the industry people present wanted to have an industry that was viable as an industry, as opposed to a sheltered workshop sucking out government money. "We don't want more funding; we want it organised so we can raise money to make the films we want to make." was the take-home message for the minister.

Yes. That brings us to the ATO... The other big issue that came up was indeed the Tax Department and their inconsistent rulings on 10BA tax concessions which have all but scared off investors. To Mr. Hockey's credit, he did say he wanted to come back and meet us again, next time with the Tax Department boss in tow to face our concerns in person. He said it stuck in his craw to hear of all the stories where people had lined up investments only to see them evaporate as the tax department made wanton rulings. He even said, who ever we wanted to talk to, he would try and bring them into this discussion.

After the general rhubarb session, I had a chance to discuss a few things with the minister, and I found him to be very receptive to the ideas being presented. Okay, so he's a politician; he might even not be a cabinet minister after the next federal election. However it seemed that he had decided to take on board the cause of the Film Industry because so many film companies operated in his electorate; and that's a nice, encouraging thing to see. The feeling was that we would all meet again and air our grievances and concerns and what-not, and he wanted to be part of an on-going process of starting a dialogue with the cultural industries on behalf of the Liberal Party.

I figure I'm going to continue attending these things if I can. LOL, if nothing else, being on first name basis with a Federal MP can't be too bad. - So suddenly yours truly is part of a lobbying group for the Film Industry, and a very vocal member at that. And you thought I was just some rank outsider crazy/crank when I was writing about why the Australian Film Industry was 'stuffed'. :)

- Art Neuro