Portfolio Media

Peter Garrett too busy whale-watching to deal with resale royalty bill

25 June 2009

Arts Minister Peter Garrett’s bungling of the Resale Royalty Bill goes on, with further delays to the legislation, seven months since it was first introduced to Parliament.

Shadow Arts Minister Steven Ciobo said Mr Garrett’s Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists Bill was due to be debated in Parliament this week, but has once again been put on the back burner.

“This has been an on-again-off-again shambles presided over by Arts Minister Mr Garrett and will undoubtedly be yet another blow for the Australian arts community,” Mr Ciobo said.

“The delay upon delay of the debate on this issue really begs the question over whether Mr Garrett is serious about this Bill, or whether he simply has so little influence in his party to get it back on the agenda.”

This week’s postponement of debate the Resale Royalty Right for Visual Artists becomes part of a litany of incompetence on this legislation, for which the nation’s arts community has been waiting for too long.

When introduced last November, Mr Garrett suspended the debate when he had to concede it was badly flawed and instead referred the Bill to a Parliamentary Committee.

Then in March, the Bill was briefly debated, despite Mr Garrett not having responded to the recommendations put forward by the Committee.

“This again shows Mr Garrett has lost control of his own policy agenda,” Mr Ciobo said. “Seven months down the track and Australia’s arts community is still waiting for an answer for the Minister to deliver the goods.

“While Mr Garrett has not amended any of the contentious elements of this Bill, the Coalition will not frustrate its passage. The Coalition simply wants to see some action on it. Mr Garrett promised this resale royalty scheme would start on July 1, but one week out, Parliament still hasn’t even debated the Bill.”

“Mr Garrett has clearly lost interest in his arts portfolio and is letting the arts community down horribly with his ham-fisted and bungled handling of this legislation.”

“Mr Garrett’s efforts make a mockery of this weeks’ comment by Leader of the House Anthony Albanese: `we take our legislative agenda seriously. We want to debate in this House the issues of concern to Australians`.”