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Vote Catcher .... Mr Beazley shows Tim Freedman
of
The Whitlams and Abby Dobson of Leonardo's Bride
how it's done at yesterday's policy launch, above.
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Labor Hooks musos on imports
line
By Richard Jinman
Entertainment Writer
The Sydney Morning Herald
May 25, 1998
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Surrounded by members of the music industry in an inner-Sydney
rock venue yesterday a sombre-suited Kim Beazley felt like "the most out-of-place
person in the room". Yet the leader of the Federal Opposition can seldom
have faced a more welcoming crowd.
Unveiling Labor's contemporary music policy, a document affirming
Labor's opposition to Coalition plans to lift restrictions on the parallel
importation of CDs, Mr Beazley won more cheers than many of the bands who
normally occupy the stage.
The assembly of musicians, managers and record company executives
in Newtown - Sydney's "headquarters of independent music" - also applauded
Labor's plans for a $6 million industry fund to support tours by local
artists and moves to increase the level of fresh Australian music played
on commercial radio.
Besides raising the air-play quota from 25 to 30 per cent, Australian
songs released in the previous two years would have 1.5 times the value
of a "golden oldie" under Labor's revised quota system. The change would
be tied to "identified increases in production and promotional expenditure"
on local artists by major record companies.
Tim Freedman, leader of appropriately named band The Whitlams, said:
"It's a very good policy. They've actually consulted the various sectors
of the music industry rather than just telling us how it should be from
up on high".
John Watson, manager of the four million album-selling band silverchair,
said Labor had "supported our argument that it [parallel imports] would
reduce Australian jobs, reduce export earnings and threaten an important
part of the country's culture. They [the Coalition] prefer to see the whole
issue through the blinkers of an inappropriate economic theory."
At present a CD can only be imported by a distributor who holds
its copyright. The Government's plan would allow CD imports without the
local copyright owner's permission.
The Government hit back yesterday with the Minister for Communications
and the Arts, Senator Alston, branding Labor's policy a betrayal of consumers.
"Australians pay too much for their CDs because these foreigh record
companies have a monopoly on imports, which allow them to keep prices too
high," Senator Alston said.
Senator Bob McMullan, the shadow minister for industrial relations,
finance and the arts, said Labor was taking a "slightly different path"
to its previous attempts to make the music industry invest $270 million
in local artists as a trade-off for maintaining the ban on parallel imports.
"We're saying 'you show us you're producing more and we'll make
sure the radio stations play more'," he said.
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