Australia’s live arts and entertainment industry is in Canberra today to build support for Australian artists, creatives and production and technical crews.
Tim Minchin, internationally acclaimed Australian composer/lyricist, musician, comedian, actor, writer, producer and director, will join representatives from Live Performance Australia (LPA) for meetings at Parliament House, as well as attend the official launch of the new Parliamentary Friends of Live Performance group on Tuesday afternoon.
As part of the consultation now underway for the next national cultural policy, LPA has renewed its call for a Live Performance Production Incentive as a transformational initiative for commercial and not-for-profit producers to bring more productions to the stage.
LPA Chief Executive Officer, Eric Lassen, said the production incentive is a proven model to attract more investment, support new productions, and strengthen industry sustainability over the longer term.
‘Investment in Australian live theatre makes good economic sense as well as contributing to our cultural vibrancy and social connection.
‘Live theatre generates over $4 billion turnover across the economy, over $2 billion in Gross Value Added and supports over 30,000 jobs. Every dollar spent by a theatre organisation has an economy-wide spillover effect of more than four dollars,” Mr Lassen said.
‘Significantly higher production and touring costs and softening consumer sentiment are making it a challenging business environment.
‘Smart, targeted initiatives such as a live performance production incentive are the game-changer we need to sustain and grow the live performance sector into the future,’ Mr Lassen said.
