Theatre Network Australia said employers should, where possible, put artists onto payroll instead of short-term contracts, ensuring these workers receive superannuation and WorkCover protections.

Respect for artists as a career choice begins at school, said the Kimberley Arts Network, with investment in arts education and grassroots arts centres vital.

“In terms of a place for every story, it feels that regional stories have lesser value than urban stories and fewer places to be heard and shared,” the network said.

The Arts Funder Network of Philanthropy Australia suggested the Australia Council scope out the creation of an introductory program in primary schools to introduce families to the benefits of creativity. Such a program, Aus-Arts, would be modelled on the AFL’s Auskick program.

Squabbalogic Independent Music Theatre, creator of The Dismissal, said there was no means for it to take its show on a national tour.

Major commercial producers focused on importing already successful overseas shows such as Hamilton and Come From Away, its artistic director Jay James-Moody said. Despite receiving government funding, state theatre companies had an increasingly poor record of supporting the independent and mid-scale sector.

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The effect was that this incubation hub for Australian theatre was being stymied, and a limited number of Australian stories were making it to the stage.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance said a new national cultural policy must acknowledge the vulnerability of arts workers and aim to lift the wages above poverty levels and
reinvest in the sector after years of neglect.

It also called for a Federal inquiry into the Australian music industry to determine if commercial arrangements governing recording contracts and streaming services are fair to performers.

The peak lobby for visual artists, NAVA, said an award rate should be established for the visual arts, craft and design sector that mandates the adequate payment of artists and arts workers for their work.

Standard entitlements should be recognised under a national workplace relations system that would mandate artist fees for new works, loans or royalty fees for the exhibition of existing artworks, and licensing fees for the reproduction of artworks in publications, on products and merchandise.

The Fair Work Commission should be able to set such minimum standards for artists and art workers, with the scope and flexibility to deal with “employee-like” forms of work, NAVA’s executive director Penelope Benton said.

Centrelink should introduce income averaging processes for artists so that fees or grants will not be treated as income that jeopardises access to any future JobSeeker payments.