The Australian Labor Party has won the 2023 New South Wales state election, with branch leader Chris Minns to become the state’s 47th premier.
Labor has won the 47 seats needed to form majority government in the state, marking only the third time the party has won government from opposition in NSW. Labor’s victory over the NSW Liberal Party and outgoing premier Dominic Perrottet – who will resign as the party’s state leader – comes after 12 years in opposition.
Labor’s win comes with an array of promises for the state’s live music sector over the next four years. In the lead-up to the election, NSW Labor pledged $103million to support contemporary music in the state, including reversing what it described as “damage from a decade of venue closures under the NSW Liberals”.
According to NSW Labor, recent data from Liquor & Gaming NSW showed that over the past 12 years, the number of music venues in NSW had halved, with just 133 licensed venues left in the state. NSW Labor has committed to a number of direct planning provisions to protect existing venues and produce new ones – including extended trading hours, lower licensing fees for music venues, a streamlined noise complaint process, and combining liquor and planning approvals to simply the process of opening a new venue.
Other plans include the establishment of a contemporary music office, Sound NSW, that will sit within government agency Create NSW and be modelled after screen industry organisation Screen NSW. Sound NSW would be charged with developing a 10-year Contemporary Music Strategy for the future of music in the state. Priorities for the allocation of funding would be developed by Sound NSW, but focus on First Nations music and rebuilding technical skills across the music sector.
NSW Labor has also committed to providing funding of up to $250,000 for the development of a business case for permanent outdoor festival and concert infrastructure in central Sydney, Parramatta, western Sydney and regional NSW. Additionally, Minns and his team pledged that should they win the election, they would continue the Great Southern Nights concert series – which began in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic – for another four years, in both metropolitan and regional locations.
NSW Labor’s other pledges included $4million over four years in funding for programs and training in response to recommendations made in the independent Raising Their Voices report, which was published in full last year. The report – which collated results of a survey of over 1600 Australian music industry workers – found “unacceptable levels of sexual harm, sexual harassment and systemic discrimination in the contemporary music industry in Australia”.
55 per cent of participants surveyed said they had experienced sexual harassment or harm during their career, with 74 per cent saying they had experienced various forms of bullying. 74 per cent of women surveyed reported experiences with sexual harassment, with 40 per cent of those incidents occurring within the last five years. The report contained a list of 17 recommendations to improve conditions within the industry.
“The music industry is stepping up to change its culture. This announcement is about backing that change,” NSW Labor’s John Graham said earlier this month when announcing NSW’s commitment to actioning recommendations made in the report.
“The Raising Their Voices report spelt out the unacceptable levels of harm, harassment and discrimination in the music industry,” Graham continued “Labor is committed to the safety of artists and music workers.”
Graham and NSW Labor also pledged to use funding levers to ensure industry compliance with recommendations, with every performance that receives public funding needing to comply with a code of conduct in order to be eligible to receive taxpayer money.
At the same time they announced funding in response to the Raising Their Voices report, NSW Labor also promised $2million in funding for music industry charity Support Act – which provides crisis relief services to musicians and industry workers – over four years.
NSW Labor’s pledge to revive the state’s music industry followed a push by the non-partisan Vote Music campaign that called for a $100million commitment to music in NSW from all parties. Music industry bodies like APRA AMCOS, ARIA and PPCA were among those who drove the Vote Music campaign, with artists such as The Presets, venues including Phoenix Central Park and community radio station FBi also throwing their support behind it.
A “report card” released ahead of the election by Vote Music revealed that both Labor and The Greens – along with several independents, the Animal Justice Party and Shooters, Fishers & Farmers – had backed the plan and pledged a $100million commitment. The NSW Liberal government did not pledge any backing for the Vote Music campaign.
ARIA and the PPCA has welcomed the NSW Labor government, with CEO Annabelle Herd saying today that the party had mad “several commitments that prioritise contemporary Australian music as a real cultural and economic contributor to the state”.
“The incoming NSW Government has made the largest single commitment to music in Australian history, at a state or federal level, in $103 million to back the industry’s Vote Music plan,” Herd continued.
She added that, along with additional funding commitments for Great Southern Nights, Support Act and cultural change in response to the Raising Their Voices report, music in NSW has “an incredible starting point to recover and realise new heights of global recognition”.