Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change, Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I refer to the resale royalty scheme issue that is being considered by the Senate committee currently inquiring into Australia’s Indigenous visual arts and crafts sector. In previous budgets it has been clear that a resale royalty scheme would not be accommodated by the government, but the Senate committee heard evidence from numerous witnesses in Canberra, Kununurra, Alice Springs and Darwin—and it is about to bring down its report—that the industry is rife with allegations of unscrupulous conduct by some dealers; fakes and rip-offs; and even, as the minister may be aware, alleged criminal conduct. Minister, given that this budget did neglect the urgent challenges facing the Indigenous arts and crafts sector and that the previous budgets rejected a resale royalty scheme, can you provide us with the evidence which would substantiate the government’s claim that a resale royalty scheme ‘would not provide a meaningful source of income for the majority of Australian artists’? And there I am quoting Senator Kemp from 9 May 2006.

See this speech in context