The Australian Labor Party released its pre-election arts policy, ‘New Directions for the Arts’, on 14 September 2007. The policy confirms the ALP’s commitment to introduce a resale royalty scheme for visual artists. Resale royalty schemes impose an obligation to pay a proportion of the proceeds from the resale of an artistic work to the artist, even if the artist is not the copyright owner.

Other promises include:

• continuation of the Educational Lending Right Scheme, under which Australian authors and publishers receive payment for books held in educational institutions, and

• “Labor will examine ways to adequately protect artist’s copyright given the challenges posed by new and emerging platforms and changes in consumer patterns.”

More information:

• For the policy see their website

• For the media release of the Shadow Minister for the Arts see their website

In March 2006, Senator Bob McMullan introduced a private member's bill which, if passed, would have introduced a resale royalty scheme.

• For information about the 2006 private member's bill, click here.

In May 2006, the government announced that it would not introduce a resale royalty scheme.

The government's announcement followed a discussion paper on the issue released in 2004.