Concern over the royalty payments scheme continues:
The art community, already nervous, fears destabilisation by a new royalties program due to its timing and over-complexity
They would laugh if it weren’t serious. Last month, Papunya Tula Artists, one of the nation’s best-regarded indigenous art centres, received its first official communication about the federal government’s resale royalty scheme. It was an email from Copyright Agency Ltd, the body appointed by Arts Minister Peter Garrett to administer the scheme, suggesting art centres make a detailed inventory of all their stock.
Papunya Tula, like most art dealers across the country, was left with more questions. Such as this: how did CAL, with its head office in Castlereagh Street, Sydney, plan to contact and distribute cheques to thousands of Aboriginal people living in remote parts of central Australia, several hundred kilometres from the next town and a long way from anything resembling a post office?
