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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 6 Hansard (24 May) . . Page.. 1690 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

arts in Australia, or knows people who do, understands the high level of cost that artists carry and the importance of complementary employment, such as teaching in the arts or other sources of income, if they are to develop and promote a professional practice.

I understand that the proposed reforms following the recommendations of Ralph, described in the New Business Tax System (Integrity Measures) Bill 2000 before the Commonwealth parliament at the moment, are intended to end tax evasion by hobby farmers and others. It may be that the impact of the legislation on professional artists at all stages of their development is an oversight. It will, however, have a disastrous impact on the work and lives of artists, requiring, as it does, that they must profit directly from their arts work, not even their related teaching or coaching, in order to claim costs associated with that work.

You may be aware, Mr Speaker, that few artists manage to earn even half of their income directly through their professional practice. Most artists earn less than $10,000 from their work. This is not a reflection on the quality of their work, nor on its importance to our cultural development. It is simply a product of our present economic and social structure. Artists use other essentially secondary employment to subsidise this primary work. The legislation as it stands will impact tremendously on the everyday work of Australia's artists-on their productivity, on their capacity for invention, on their preparedness to take risks, and on the likelihood or possibility of them being able to continue to work creatively at all.

Mr Speaker, the materials and equipment costs that many artists need to meet if they are to produce and develop their work are high. These costs range from drawing and painting equipment, chemicals, metals and tools for sculpture, to musical instruments, sophisticated computer and video equipment and voice and body training. Anyone who has worked as an artist or with artists would be well aware of the continually straightened circumstances under which most of them practise, but it is untrue to say that artists who do not make a profit on their work are necessarily unsuccessful, or that they are hobbyists, or that their work is not important to our cultural development at the time or, indeed, in the future. Their work defines our Australian identity. It is widely enjoyed and creates an international representation of the country.

This legislation will have its most devastating impact in the long term. It is very clear that it was not drafted with any understanding of or consideration for the professional development of artists. One of the key features of any significant professional practice is that the work itself has a profile and recognition within the industry and across the community more generally. Emerging artists of every form very rarely establish such a practice without investing a high proportion of their non-arts income into developing, refining and promoting their work.

Most young and emerging artists make do on limited incomes, often working in low-grade jobs in service industries and investing an extraordinary amount of time and money in their work. If they cannot claim the legitimate but extensive costs this work incurs as deductions from their income they will not be able to survive and to develop their work. They will not be able to contribute to the shape and shaping of our society, now or in the future. As a consequence, unless this legislation as it affects the arts community is

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