The Morrison Government’s long-awaited package for the arts and entertainment industry, announced today, is too little, very late, the Greens say.

Greens spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, who has been calling for a specific industry package for four months after COVID-19 restrictions shutdown arts and entertainment in Australia basically overnight, said:

“After watching the demise of the arts and entertainment industry for four months, the Morrison Government has finally managed to find some funding to help it.

Responsibility for the 250 job cuts at the ABC announced today, lie firmly at the feet of the Morrison Government, the Greens say.
Greens Spokesperson for Media Senator Sarah Hanson-Young is today urging the Prime Minister to reverse the funding cuts his government has made to the public broadcaster to save jobs and public interest journalism.
“The ABC has suffered from repeated budget cuts under the Coalition Government, some $783million since 2014, and is now forced to cut jobs and news services to stay afloat," Senator Hanson-Young said. 

There has been a lot of public discussion in the last few weeks about racism in our society. This has largely resulted from the massive antiracist Black Lives Matter protests that have been held across the world. As I said in the Senate last week, these are long-overdue conversations taking place about the way that racism operates in our society, not just in its interpersonal, everyday, so-called 'casual' forms but also through systems, structures and institutions.

The Senate has today called on the Morrison Government to require tech giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Apple TV and Stan to back and fund Australian-made stories.

Greens Spokesperson for Arts and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young who moved the motion that was supported by the Senate, said:

”If the streaming giants want to continue to participate in the Australian market and stream into Australian lounge rooms they should support, promote and fund Australian-made stories, films and shows.

Two thirds of Australians support laws requiring streaming services like Netflix and Amazon to show and fund locally made shows and films, new research shows.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“The polling shows the public wants Australian made content – TV, films and documentaries.

“The Government should get on with regulating the bigwigs of streaming like Netflix, Amazon and Apple.

Chair of the Senate Inquiry into Press Freedoms, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, has vowed to look at the treatment of the press covering the protests in America after a shocking attack by police in Washington DC on a 7 News Australia crew.

“Police and riot squads punching and assaulting journalists who are doing their jobs is simply unacceptable. We have seen footage not just of Australian press being treated this way but local media who have been arrested, shot with rubber bullets, tear gassed and bashed by police across America,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

The foreshadowing of a package for the arts and entertainment industry by the PM is welcome, but the devil will be in the detail, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the arts and entertainment industry has been pleading for Government intervention for months.

“The Prime Minister likes his sport, I hope today's reports are a sign he’s starting to recognise the arts and entertainment sector is important too. But the devil will be in the detail," Senator Hanson-Young said.

The AFP should rule out charging ABC journalists Sam Clark and Dan Oakes following today’s welcome announcement that charges won’t be laid against journalist Annika Smethurst, the Greens say.

Greens spokesperson for Media and Chair of the Senate Inquiry into Press Freedoms, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said both the ABC and Smethurst cases highlighted why Australia needs a Media Freedom Act.

“AFP’s decision to rule out charging Annika Smethurst is welcome news,” Senator Hanson-Young said.

With JobKeeper set for a $60b underspend, the Greens will introduce legislation to the Senate when Parliament resumes in June to extend JobSeeker and JobKeeper eligibility, as well as pushing for investment in jobs-rich recovery in arts and manufacturing.

The Greens are calling on Treasurer Frydenberg to stop being Team ‘Some’ Australians, and immediately expand the JobKeeper program to businesses and workers in the arts and entertainment industry who have been left out.

“For months now the Government has refused to include the hundred of thousands of workers who have lost their jobs in the arts and entertainment industry in their JobKeeper package. They said they didn’t have the money,” Greens Arts and Media Spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.