More than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia, the live entertainment industry continues to call for an insurance scheme to recover from the impacts of the pandemic. However, the Morrison government has rejected these calls.
A senate committee inquiry was recently called after senator Sarah Hanson-Young announced that the Greens Party will follow the footsteps of the Labor Party in backing the live entertainment industry’s calls for an insurance scheme.
However, three Coalition senators voted against the Federal Government providing insurance losses tied to state government actions, such as public health orders that would cancel events.
According to The Guardian, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet claimed that market failure is not an argument for government intervention “if the failure does not have a material impact on the functioning of the wider market.”
“But in the event of a market distortion leading to inefficient or inequitable outcomes, the cost of intervention may be justified,” it said.
More than a year since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Australia, the live entertainment industry continues to struggle and there have been calls for the government to implement an event insurance scheme to financially help event organisers plan future events while considering the restrictions and other issues caused by the pandemic.
In October 2021, Business Events Council of Australia (BECA) representatives discussed with Labor Party senators the live entertainment industry’s calls for establishing an insurance scheme to help event organisers amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the meeting, the BECA supported the Live Performance Federal Insurance Guarantee Fund Bill 2021 and the Senate Environment and Communications Legislation Committee’s views that the lack of COVID-19-related event insurance would impact industry confidence and slow the industry’s recovery next year.
The meeting prompted the Labor Party to back the calls for an insurance scheme, with the Greens Party eventually following its footsteps.
In a recent statement, Hanson-Young argued that artists, musicians, and their crews had been devastated by another season of cancelled events, festivals, concerts, exhibitions, and live performances without insurance protection.
“A federal insurance guarantee will plug this massive hole in the insurance market and help get our shows back on the road well into the future,” she said, as reported by The Guardian.
“The live performance sector isn’t asking for a handout; it is asking for a product that isn’t available to them and one that is fit for purpose,” she continued. “Tours traverse state borders; it is quite obvious a national approach to helping the industry is needed.”
In response, a spokesperson for arts minister Paul Fletcher said he was examining the report.
“As we have consistently said, it is decisions by state government health authorities which trigger the business losses faced by producers of arts and entertainment events,” the spokesperson said, according to The Guardian. “Therefore, it is state governments which are best placed to provide cover against this kind of risk.”
