Arts Freedom Australia

The PMA stand is now set up with our Committee excited to meet thousands of people throughout the 3 day trade show! Our main aim to help increase awareness of Arts Freedom Australia and educate people who are not aware of their eroding rights and loss of freedom of expression! We have 3 different styles of t-shirts available for sale (pics to be put up on site soon) due to supplier increases, our t-shirts are now $30 each. However, I’m sure you will agree this is a small price to pay towards increasing our freedoms and reducing the bureaucrats restricting hold on our artistic rights. As per our newsletter, there are now 3 levels of membership available -

• 1 Year $10
• 3 Year $25
• Lifetime $50.

We have eftpos facilities available during PMA. Christian Fletcher will be a guest speaker on our stand at 11am Saturday & 2.15pm Sunday. Leo Meier will also give a talk on how he’s seen throughout his career the decline  for the rights of those within the arts industy (Saturday, June 25th time TBC). David Oliver will be at our stand on Sunday (time TBC) as well as  Ken Duncan at various times throughout the 3 days. So come and buy your t-shirt and have it signed by some of the great’s of the photography industry! See you there! AFA Committee

Hi Arts Freedom Members,

 The AFA Committee would like to say thank-you for your support throughout the past 12 months, as without your voice and support behind us; we couldn’t do what we do.

 We have had some restructure amongst the AFA Committee with Nick Rains resigning as Vice-President and Glenn McKimmin as a member. We would like to thank them for there great efforts and they will still stay on as supporters. We now have welcomed William Long into the Committee. William brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with him and has already made some great contributions amongst the Committee.

 One of the greatest things AFA has been able to achieve is bring awareness to the different Government Departments of how some of their regulations have really affected our profession. To their credit many are now beginning to hear our voice, as it is not a lonely voice but many thousands united.

 Dennis Glennon AO (an AFA Committee member) has been instrumental in WA with the Government rolling back regulations within WA National Parks.

 AFA Secretary, Renee Dandy, attended a consultative meeting with Screen NSW regarding the current Local Government Filming Protocol  (LGFP) (commonly known as the film friendly protocol) Screen NSW are in the process of reviewing the Protocol, after collating information from interested parties and prepared draft recommendations for changes to the Protocol. The current Protocol does not include Stills Photography. This recent review was an opportunity for AFA to try and get Stills included within the Protocol, as this is a piece of legislation Local Councils must adhere to. Whereby, they usually hide behind section 68 of the Local Government Act, which states: A person requires Council approval to engage in a trade or business on community land. This means they can charge you whatever they want. We are looking at the word “Commercial” to be defined within the LGFP and an “Ultra Low” category put in, which would state, if you have 4 or less people, then there should be no notification, fee’s or permits will apply. And if you were to require a permit (4 or more people) that fee’s should reflect the cost recovery, as they are usually set much higher by Councils.

 Ken Duncan OAM, has been in discussions with NSW Minister for the Arts, George Souris and is currently organising to meet with Mr Souris and our local MP, Chris Hartcher. They are committed to making NSW the arts friendly state.

Already we are seeing changes take place in NSW due to our continued pressure. So we would like to say thank you to those people who have heard our concerns or looked at any unjust regulations and did something about it.NSW National Parks is to be congratulated, as they changed their policy in 2010 so small-scale photography and wedding photographers are only required to fill out an annual application form, which takes less than a minute to fill out and submit online! This annual permit is free! The NSW National Park definition for small scale filming says, Photography that involves a maximum of one camera operator and done assistant, requires only low level equipment use (i.e. back packable equipment, single tripod) does not use structures, film sets or professional talent; does not exclude an

area from use by others, and has negligible potential to impact on a park environment. This document can be viewed online at http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/commercial/FormPhotography.htm

Councils in NSW are also starting to review their photography policies so let’s keep going.

Congratulations also to Queensland National Parks who are beginning to free up their policy on photography. We are really beginning to see some sensibility return into bureaucracy but we still have a lot of lost ground to recover.

Denis and Ken will be working together to arrange a meeting with Federal Minister for the Arts, Simon Crean MP. Once this happens, we’ll certainly keep you posted on the outcomes from these discussions.

Recently in an interview on ABC Simon Crean said “ He and his party recognised the importance of the Arts and their contribution to Australia and it was his aim to make sure that his Government created an atmosphere where artists were free to pursue their art” So it will be an interesting meeting.

The review of the EPBC Act, is still being held up in The Federal Minster, Tony Burke’s office. The Environment portfolio is part of his area and he has not signed off on it yet so we still have time to get changes. This is a big issue at a Federal level one that we must get changed as that effects policy on Commonwealth Parks, like Uluru Kata Tjuta National Park, Blue Mountains National Park & Kakadu National Park and many more.

The AFA Committee firmly believe that with our continued presence and lobbying amongst the different Government departments we are seeing the brakes go on our loss of Freedoms. Now I believe we are seeing some reversing lights come on.

Policy makers are now being held accountable for bad policy. AFA is watching and trying to work with officials to keep freedom in the arts.

However, we are still working hard at clawing back the freedoms we have lost and we need to keep the pressure on until we see the freedoms we once had returned.

Don’t Forget to wear your “I’m a photographer not a criminal” t-shirts, as these are getting a lot of feedback.

Let’s Lobby to Be the Arts Friendly Nation of the world.

We have made changes to our constitution regarding memberships. The previous constitution stated we needed to resign up members every 12months, including members needing to pay an annual membership fee. We thought this was too restricting on our members so have adopted new membership rules to make it easier for everyone. We have 3 different levels available

1 Year $10

3 Year $25

Lifetime Member $50

AFA are going to be at PMA Trade Show at Sydney Convention Centre on Friday the 24^th of June – Sunday 26^th www.pmaaustralia.com.au  PMA have donated a booth to AFA to support our efforts. If you’re attending please stop by our stand (number 5214) and say hi.  Buy a t-shirt; we have new Purple ones and Red ones for the ladies. Renew your membership… WE need your support 

We’ll be having guest speakers there throughout the two days, including Ken Duncan who is also happy to sign anyone’s shirt! We’ll keep you posted via the AFA Facebook page for the times and who will on our stand as a guest speak leading up to the show and also throughout the two days. Also, if you’re not already a fan of our Facebook page please visit and like our page at www.facebook.com/ArtsFreedomAustralia

Thanks again for your support!

The AFA Team

Arts Freedom Australia Committee.

AFA President Ken Duncan has been liaising with the NSW Opposition State Government, here is a press release we have started to send out and the outcomes we hope to achieve if the Libs are elected on March 26!

The Labor Government including NSW Arts Minister, Virginia Judge, has allowed a situation where photographers and artists are being treated with total disrespect.  They have had many freedoms taken away from them and in some instances have been treated discourteously by government representatives.

Arts Freedom Australia (AFA) represents thousands of photographers and other artists. “We had to form a group to fight back,” says AFA’s President, Ken Duncan, OAM.  “The only thing politicians listen to is numbers, so AFA conducted a very successful rally in August 2010 to make our issues public.  That rally received substantial media coverage and support from the general public mainly because people sympathised with our cause.  It seems many people are fed up with loss of freedoms.”

After the rally, Minister Judge contacted AFA to say she had been unaware of these issues. She then convened a meeting with the appropriate people and said she would take action to protect the rights of artists. Lots of promises were made but, 6 months later, nothing has been done to rectify the problems. When AFA executives try to find out what is happening, they are ignored.

AFA has since contacted Opposition Spokesperson Anthony Roberts who handles the Arts portfolio for the NSW Liberal Party. Shadow Minister Roberts is a breath of fresh air.  He and his party understand the value of the arts to our society. He has pledged to address regulations and restrictions which have made it difficult for photographers and painters to pursue their creative arts. He agrees that if artists are creating no more impact or requiring no more access than the general public, there should be no permits or fees required. He has assured AFA that should the Liberal Government be elected in NSW he will quickly address this issue with all concerned. The Liberal Party will help liberate the arts and protect the rights of artists from over-zealous bureaucracy. They will see that NSW becomes the Arts Friendly State.

So if you love photography and if you are sick of being unreasonably restricted and curtailed when you get your camera out to take a photo, or if you love art, then please vote for Liberal at the upcoming NSW elections and help liberate the arts.

Please help!

Ken Duncan, OAM

Arts Freedom Australia Inc. President.

For the next few weeks, we’d like to introduce you to the AFA Committee Members – who are they? why did they join AFA? All these questions will be answered each week with a new “bio” we’ll post here – so make sure you check in regulary for your who’s who of AFA.

Starting this week’s AFA profile is Renee Dandy – the Secretary to Arts Freedom Australia Inc.

Bio: Renee Dandy – Arts Freedom Australia.

As a child growing up in Melbourne in the 70’s I enjoyed the freedom of running around at the local beaches with my siblings on hot summer days. My mother loved capturing those special family moments on film. Even now I go back through those albums with my own child and reminisce.

Going to the beach now with my son and trying to capture some childhood memories for him, I am treated with suspicion.  We have lost the innocence of freedom of expression. My son may not own a photo album like mine, due to the burden of the regulations we live under these days.  It disturbs me that bureaucrats sitting behind their desks think I’m out to photograph other people’s children inappropriately either at the beach or the local school swimming carnival.

It is due to this sense of loss that I joined Arts Freedom Australia Inc. and then became Secretary in 2010. I am a keen amateur photographer and when these restrictions were brought to my attention I decided we couldn’t sit back anymore – action needs to be taken.

The highlight of my time with AFA to date was organising and contributing to our first public rally at Campbell’s Cove last August.  This proved very successful in publicly highlighting the need for fairer regulations for everyone – from mum and dad happy snappers, amateurs through to professional and commercial photographers. I want my civil rights and the freedom to photograph my son and capture all his childhood activities, so he can then show his children his own history. I don’t want to feel condemned photographing a beautiful landscape within a National Park and unwittingly commit a criminal offence.

I long for the day we have complete freedom of artistic expression and until that day, I will continue to assist AFA in lobbying the relevant departments until our voices are heard and action is taken. Renee Dandy.

AFA Secretary Renee Dandy

We want to share with you a letter we just received via Australian Traveller – this is a recent comment to an article that was published some time ago…

Now to get the Beauracrats to take note!

Dear Ken and Arts Freedom Australia,

I read your article at http://www.australiantraveller.com/component/content/article/4050 and as a 30 year professional photographer from the states, I must confess, I was both blown away at the nonsense of the govt’s. crap and your magnificent wisdom’s and, on-target thoughts.

My small team and I have worked for months to assemble a video shoot in your beautiful country in March and it became blatantly clear that our efforts most likely will end shortly for an Australian trip. Hours and hours of painstakingly difficult work to put this little project together (there is only going to be three of us) seems to have vanished when we looked into the horrific amount of paperwork and cost associated with us shooting a video in the various cities and parks (permits).

We were going to produce a wonderful film about tourism, where to go, how to go and what to do. Distributed around the world, surely it would have assisted the local economies in various manners. I was spending almost $10,000.00 to come over and do all of this but I am sorry to say, that isn’t going to happen now. The eateries that we were going to eat at no longer will receive our money, the places we were going to stay will have vacant rooms, and auto rentals car we were going to hire will sit in the parking lot, the boat/s we were going to ride in will sit in the harbor, the underwater diving shops will have their tanks sitting on the shelves, even the tee shirt shops that we were going to purchase will be on the rack….all because the idiots with no common sense don’t have the balls to stand up and correct the multiple “vengeance” they so willingly take against a photographer. My god, how utterly stupid.

So what happens now? We take our money somewhere else.

Sincerely,

Jim Oltersdorf
website: www.joltersdorf.com
www.alaskasbushpilots.com

Couldn’t make the AFA rally in Sydney, here is a snippet of the day. Thanks to everyone who supported by attending and those in spirit.
AFA Rally Video

Sorry for the hiatus, the payment gateway glitch has been sorted out and we are good to go.

Sorry it’s taken a while but there were some unexpected policy and legal issues to deal with. The Constitution of AFA, like many legal entities, requires us to charge an actual fee for any memberships. We charged $2 at the rally as a kind of Gold Coin donation but we are obliged to do things by the book. Consequently we have decided to honour the $2 fee until the end of the financial year and then review it.

There is a new menu item on the right labelled ‘Memberships’ click there for the payment details. There is also an option to make a $20 contribution towards AFA on top of your fee if you so choose. As you know AFA is financed by industry and through public contributions, so please consider dipping into your pocket to help us fight the good fight.

Buying T-Shirts helps too!

Last Saturdays, The Australian Newspaper,  has run a major article on AFA and how art photographers are increasingly frustrated by a climate of regulation and suspicion. It’s a great read… click here for article: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/not-a-good-look/story-e6frg8n6-1225930635070