By Alexander Lewis,Ruby Ritchie

Copyright abc

The art sector says bold tax reforms could be key to supporting a rapidly changing industry during “challenging times”.

Industry leaders, tax experts and government ministers met at the Sydney Opera House on Thursday, to discuss proposals for Australia’s arts and creative industries.

More than 300 written submissions were made to the Art Tax Reform Summit, including proposals to remove or reduce tax on prizes and grants, introduce offsets on production costs and incentives to support new work.

It forms part of the federal government’s review into the National Cultural Policy, which will officially open for consultation next year.

Less room for Australian music

John Watson manages Australian artists such as Missy Higgins, Midnight Oil and Birds of Tokyo.

He said that Australian musicians were “swimming uphill” against American music to fight for spots on charts.

According to Mr Watson, the algorithms of streaming and social media platforms are biasing international artists, shifting listeners away from Australian musicians.

He is seeking an adjustment to Australia’s tax laws that would expand tax write-offs to musicians.

“At the moment, there’s an incentive for producer offset incentive to encourage business to invest in film or to invest in games,” he said.

“We think that should be expanded and applied to music.”

Theatres can’t take risks

Musicians are not the only artists seeking change to tax laws.

Executive director of Sydney Theatre Company, Anne Dunn, said theatre in Australia was on the verge of collapse as ticket sales rarely covered production costs.

“Government funding has been decreasing year-on-year, costs of living in Sydney and across the country is going through the roof,” she said.

Ms Dunn said tax models from the United Kingdom could be implemented here, allowing theatres to take more risks in investing in new Australian plays.

“We’d be able to support that work, without having to dig into resources of the company that are already scarce,” she said.

Tweaking tax system is ‘complex’

Federal Arts Minister Tony Burke said the arts and creative industries sectors had seen a 6.6 per cent growth in economic activity year-on-year.

“Obviously, that’s not going to be the lived experience of everyone who works in the sector,” Mr Burke said.

“There’s plenty of areas of the sector that are doing it really tough.”

Mr Burke said it meant funding and taxation policy had to be done “right”.

“It’s called a cultural policy for a reason. This goes right to the heart of who we are,” Mr Burke said.

The federal minister said submissions about how the tax system could be reformed would be “complex” ahead of next year’s review.