Government responds to Senate Committee report on Indigenous art

In August 2008, the Commonwealth Government responded to the June 2007 report of the Senate Committee on the Environment, Communications, Information Technology and the Arts on Indigenous arts. The Committee's report, ‘Indigenous Art—Securing the Future’, followed its inquiry into Australia's Indigenous visual arts and craft sector.

The government’s response includes a rejection of the recommendation by the then-government majority of the committee that a resale right for artists not be introduced. The government’s response confirms the current government’s commitment to introduce a resale royalty scheme for artists, and refers to a proposed “cross-Government working group” to implement the scheme and finalisation of the parameters of the scheme following “targeted consultation with visual arts and art market sectors”.

The response also rejects the Committee’s recommendation for the introduction of legislation to protect Indigenous cultural and intellectual property (referring to protection under existing legislation), and notes that the Attorney-General’s Department is preparing a briefing on Indigenous Communal Moral Rights (ICMR), and that the government has not made a decision about whether it will introduce legislation to protect ICMR.

More:

• government response to Senate Committee's report
• Senate Committee's report
• Sydney Morning Herald article on government's response