YEAR IN REVIEW2020-21
We acknowledge the traditional custodians on whose land our office stands: the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and their Elders past, present and emerging. We recognise their continuing culture and their contributions to the life of our city and region. We value their heritage, beliefs and relationship with the land, which continue to be important to the Eora people living today. We pay our respects to the First Australians, the traditional custodians of this continent, whose cultures are among the oldest living cultures in human history. And we extend this respect to other Indigenous people who come to our office, and to more recent arrivals.
CHAIR ’ S MESSAGE
Kate Harrison In July this year, I was appointed to take over the role of Chair of the Copyright Agency from Kim Williams who had held the position for the last 6 years. As Kim stepped down from the Board, I acknowledged his exceptional stewardship of the Agency. Under his leadership, we renovated our systems and processes, struck multiple agreements to ensure fair payment to creators, advocated for fair policy settings and launched actions in the Copyright Tribunal that are fundamental to setting the future copyright framework and ensuring payment to members. Kim also made a very significant contribution to the work of the Cultural Fund and the Board recognises and thanks Kim for his passion, commitment and drive in standing up for Australian writers, publishers, and visual artists. I know that you will join me in thanking him for his dedication and commitment to the Sincecause.joining the Board in March 2018 I have chaired the Board’s Copyright Committee. In my new role, I will continue working with fellow board members to continue to stand up for the rights of creators by licensing content, and advocate for policy settings that respect the rights of creators and support the production of Australian content. Copyright Agency connects users and creators of content, providing licences for the use of copyright material such as text, images and art via the education licences and licences to government and businesses. We also manage the Resale Royalty scheme for artists. Without these licences authors, publishers and artists risk missing out on fair payment for the use of their Thework.importance of copyright payments to the creative industries eco-system should not be underestimated – they provide financial sustenance to creators, many of whom are amongst the lowest paid in our society and support the continued creation of Australian works. The support we provide through the Cultural Fund also makes a tangible difference to the lives of Australian creators daily. In June 2020, the PWC report: The economic contribution of Australia’s copyright industries – 2006-2018, found that the copyright eco-system employed 1 million people or 8.3% of the workforce, contributed approximately $124 million or 6.8% of GDP and $4.8 billion or 1.5% of global exports from Australia. In 2018 alone, the core copyright industries (such as literature, music, visual arts and film) generated economic value of $87bn and employed 68,000 people. These figures reflect not only the significance of the education publishing sector which develops high quality curriculum content in Australian schools, but also the rich literary works by Australian authors – highlighted each year via the Miles Franklin Literary Awards. It tells the story of the financial contribution the creative industries make to the Australian contributionUnfortunately,economy.theeconomicourmembersmake is under ongoing threat from digital disruption which continues to test the rights of our members to be remunerated fairly for the use of their work. Digital businesses that rely on
Simultaneously, we are seeing increasingly polarized debates in policy and legal arenas around the globe, with mounting pressure on governments and rights holders to water down copyright protections with scant regard for the creators of that content. According to a recent CISAC study, worldwide royalty collections for creative works fell by 9.9% in 2020, with losses amounting to more than €1 billion as a result of the global pandemic.1 It is clear that we now stand at a critical juncture for creators and rightsholders –with unprecedented pressure for content to be not only accessible but also free. The role of collective management organisations such as Copyright Agency is more important than ever. At times, this means we can’t avoid taking action in the Copyright Tribunal to protect the rights of our members, even though our strong preference is not to resort to litigation to resolve licensing issues. The recent decision by the Copyright Tribunal to adopt the model proposed by Meltwater in the Media Monitoring Organisations (MMO) case in the Copyright Tribunal to reduce the amount paid to content creators and publishers is an example of the challenges we face in advocating for our members – the Copyright Agency is appealing the Indecision.addition to the MMOs case, the Copyright Agency is also awaiting a Tribunal decision on universities, to determine fair and equitable rate for the content used by students that is produced by our members.
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Early this year, we also asked the Copyright Tribunal to assist with the development of a new survey tool to better capture the use of members work in Australian schools. We will continue to keep you up to date as these issues progress.
CHAIR ’ S MESSAGE Kate Harrison content but don’t always recognise the fact that ongoing quality content creation depends on remuneration are fuelling demand for free content. Left unchallenged this approach weakens the contribution authors and visual artists make to our cultural identity and threatens the economic growth and prosperity of the creative sector so clearly laid out in the PWC Inreport.addition to the challenges of digital platform freeloading, it’s clear that the policy environment for copyright management has also deteriorated as a result of the pandemic. The complex infrastructure that supports the production, promotion and sales of written and visual arts work has been hugely impacted by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Around the world, bookstores have closed, writers’ festivals cancelled. Publishers of all sizes have had to retrench or furlough staff, cut wages, and many of our rightsholder members are facing extraordinary challenges in continuing to produce quality content.
These outcomes were achieved despite the whole team moving to remote working in light of the threat of COViD19. Thank you to Adam and the team for your resilience and patience as you navigated the shifting landscape of changing health advice in 2020 and 2021. We look forward to welcoming staff and members back to the office in 2022.
The last year was a mixture of challenges and achievements. From an organisational perspective we paid $101.8 million to our members. We supported many exciting initiatives; the Age Book of the year; the Australian Book Industry Awards; the Daisy Utemorrah Award for an unpublished manuscript of a junior or YA fiction by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writer; the Queensland Literary Awards; the UNSW Press Bragg prize and the Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism to name but a few.
CHAIR S MESSAGE
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Kate Harrison
Kate Harrison
Finally, I want to thank our departing CEO, Adam Suckling. Under his leadership, the Agency has recast its strategy, and made record payments to members for the use of their work. You leave the organisation renewed and refreshed, and we thank you for all of your work for the Copyright Agency and for our members.
Independe rector OUR BOARD meet the directors APA-appointedDirector JaneCurry Member electedPublisherDirector JasonEades IndependentDirector KirstyMurray ASA-appointedDirector AnneMariaNicholson ASA-appointedDirector DrOliverWatts Member-electedArtistDirector RichardEccles IndependentDirector AdeleFerguson Member-electedAuthorDirector LeslieLobleCathGodfrey APA appointedDirector
In FY21, we completed the transformation all our member supporting systems that we use to invoice licensees, workout distributions and pay members. We also upgraded the member portable further improving the service we provide members. All these systems are now on 21 century digital platforms – and the new systems were all delivered on time and on budget.
Adam Suckling
Over this period, we have worked hard to ameliorate – to the extent an organisation such as Copyright Agency can – the devastating impacts of COVID on members. We distributed just over $101m to publishers, writers and visual artists and we also we increased funding via the Cultural Fund to support a wide range of fantastic projects (covered in this report).
The team successfully deployed the first distribution using the Member Portal allowing members to process data more efficiently, manage which licence schemes they would like to opt into, invite others to manage their account, and generate their own payment reports.
COVID made FY21 really challenging for writers, publishers and visual artists. Writers festivals closed or went on-line, gallery’s closed, and book shops closed their doors – all of which has impacted on publicity, sales and revenue for creators.
Over the period, we also continued to advocate to policy makers in Canberra for fair copyright settings that support investment, creativity and the rights of members, as well as continuing with two actions in the Copyright Tribunal in support of Atrightsholders.thetimeof writing we are awaiting a decision in one of these matters –the action against the 39 universities covering: 1) the amount payable for the copying and communication of copyright works by the universities; and 2) the design of the data collection scheme to be used in the future. I would again like to deeply thank the members who assisted in the preparation of the case, particularly those who gave evidence at the hearing.
CEO’S MESSAGE
In addition, we’ve asked the Copyright Tribunal for assistance with designing new methodologies for collecting data from schools in relation to their copying and sharing of content under the education statutory licence which the Copyright Agency. We believe that advances in digital technology make it possible to efficiently collect accurate data about the material teachers are using under the licence, while reducing the administrative time spent by teachers on collecting data.
CEO S MESSAGE Adam Suckling
It’s been a tough two years for everyone, but together we have been able to continue supporting Australian creative industries, enabling students to learn and advocating for the rights of creators. I’d like to thank you all for your cooperation and support during this time.
This is my last CEO message at the Copyright Agency, it’s been an extraordinary 6 years. I’ve loved this role. Copyright and Copyright Agency, are so critical to helping make the big things happen: facilitating access to the world’s content, supporting writers, helping publishers invest and employ Australians, and supporting our talented visual artists.
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I would like to thank the senior management team and everyone in the agency for their support, dedication and hard work. I would also like to thank licensees, who pay for the use of content, as well as our 37,000 members who create such great Finally,material.Iwould like to thank Chair, Kate Harrison and all Board members for their valuable governance, support and guidance.
Adam Suckling
In the other matter, we had a disappointing result in the Copyright Tribunal case against the media monitoring companies for the use of news material. This judgement is currently confidential but we will update members further as soon as we are able to.
$129. 0M REVENUE$19.1MINEXPENSES AT A GLANCE our financial highlights 14. 8% COSTRATIO$101.8MPAIDTOMEMBER S $109.9MNETINCOME Each year we collect royalties from Australian schools, universities, colleges, governments, corporations and overseas collecting societies, and distribute them to writers, publishers, visual artists, and surveyors. Despite the challenges faced in both 2020 and 2021, we remained resolutely focused on distributing payments in a timely fashion and minimising the potential impacts to members.
THE YEAR THAT WAS Member Portal enhanced to ease work paymentsandregistration,makeeasiertounderstand.$6.43M paid to visual artists 803 commercialextendedlicences $101.8M paid to members $1.6M generated in resale royalties PARTNERSHIPSNEW to support reviews of Australian books 90+PROVIDERSEDUCATION licensing or trialling FLEX duringsectorseducationtoContinuedworkwithandcommercialtoeaseadminburdencovid-19 Made submission to Office of the Arts on Growing theVisualIndigenousArtsIndustry 230 Reading Australia resources and counting Made submission to the Parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s creative and cultural institutions 75 NEW education licences$1.97M Cultural Fund awards in grants and Fellowships
OUR MEMBERS highlights Help Centre views 35,800 enquiries answered 15,300 recipientspaid 11,000+ satisfactionrating 96% newadmittedmembers 614 We support creation of content by making it easy for users to access copyrighted materials on fair terms. On behalf of creators of text and images, we negotiate, collect and distribute copyright fees and royalties, and develop new services and products to facilitate the use of their content. We also represent our members on matters affecting their rights. We have more than 38,000 members, who include writers, artists, agents and more than 70 copyright management organisations in other countries. Many members receive payments that they pass on to, or share with, multiple other rightsholders. These include publishers who share payments with writers and illustrators, and agents and copyright management organisations who pass on payments to writers, artists and publishers they represent.
• submission to Office of the Arts on Growing the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry; • submission on the Productivity Commission’s draft report on the Right to Repair, re-iterating our strong opposition to a US-style fair use exception, and calling for any new exception to be very specific.
The non-statutory licences offered by Copyright Agency are dependent upon the authorisation given by members to license their content, and the authorisation of foreign content creators through their collective management organisations (CMOs).
Copyright Agency therefore has agreements with foreign CMOs that enable us to include foreign works in Australian licences, and to also collect payment from foreign CMOs on behalf of members when Australian works are included in foreign licences. The maintenance of those agreements requires active management, affected by a range of external developments including changes in regulatory frameworks and business practices.
Policy We monitor and seek to influence policy developments that affect copyright-based licence fees and other income for content creators. We form policy positions in consultation with a range of stakeholders, including industry and professional bodies representing content creators.
The objects in Copyright Agency’s Constitution include: • to promote and foster the interests of owners of copyrights and neighbouring rights; and • to support or oppose any legislation which might affect the Company’s interests. Engagement in policy and advocacy in 2020-2021 included: • working with the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, and with stakeholders, on the matters in the Minister’s August 2020 announcement; • submission to the Parliamentary inquiry into Australia’s creative and cultural institutions; • submission to, and appearance before, the Parliamentary inquiry into the Aboriginal flag;
New agreements in 2020-21: ASCRL (USA) – unilateral agreement, March We2021.monitor for new opportunities to include additional repertoire under our voluntary licences, and to ensure that Australian rightsholders are appropriately represented in the international space.
Copyright Agency is a member of the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO) and the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC). Copyright Agency plays an active role on the IFRRO Committees, and is on the Executive Committee of CISAC visual arts body, CIAGP. Copyright Agency is also a member of the Press Database and Licensing Network (PDLN).
International Rights Agreements and Engagement
ANDADVOCACYAGREEMENTS
Copyright Agency currently has agreements with 37 rights management organisations around the world who represent rightsholders for the text/image sector. All agreements are with IFRRO members. Additionally, to support our visual arts licensing schemes, we have 38 agreements in place with CISAC visual arts societies, as well as 5 foreign artist estates/foundations.
FLEX allows visibility of reading list content at a course level, which (among other things) assists us with distribution of licence fees, and enables easy digital assignment of content to students.
As at 30 June 2021, we had deployed FLEX with 18 licensees (some comprising multiple colleges), a further 32 were running a trial, and 55 had expressed an interest in a trial.
Participating publishers that provide digital content currently include: Allen & Unwin, Australian Academic Press, Bloomsbury Publishing, Cengage, CSIRO, HarperCollins, McGraw-Hill, Pearson, PsychOz, Oxford University Press, Wiley, Wolters Kluwer, Elsevier US, Aspire Learning Resources, Kilbaha Education, NewSouth Publishing, Emerald Publishing, Taylor & Francis, and Thomson Reuters. New Member Portal
FLEX We have developed an online product called FLEX, which makes the preparation of course reading material simpler and faster for librarians and educators in tertiary institutions. Among other features, FLEX customers get access to participating publishers’ digital content, get to share scan copies and can order highquality scans from the British Library.
FLEX also enables management of course material from other sources, such as content in the licensed institution’s library, open access content, and content available online.
Developments in 2020-21 include a new member portal with a simpler application process for new members, dynamic payment reports which allow clear visibility of publications and survey plans, streamlined systems for requesting and providing payment shares for books, functionality for creator members to register publications containing their works, self-serve management of licence participation and stronger security.
ANDNEGOTIATIONSAGREEMENTS
In May 2021, the Company filed an application in the Tribunal requesting it determine a suitable data collection method for the copying and communication of copyright material in schools. In the 2019 remuneration agreement reached with the schools’ sector, represented by the Copyright Advisory Group, the parties agreed to work together to determine a new methodology to collect data. That agreement contemplated that, after September 2020, either party could bring an application seeking the assistance of the Tribunal to determine the appropriate method for data collection. The rate payable with respect to usage by schools continues to be covered by the 2019 remuneration agreement until the end of 2022.
ANDNEGOTIATIONSAGREEMENTS
On behalf of its members, Copyright Agency requested that the Copyright Tribunal determine the applicable rate and sampling method. Interim orders were sought from the Tribunal at the same time to ensure that its members continue to be paid while the matter is before the Tribunal. The Tribunal ordered, on an interim basis, that the universities continue to pay the same amount but with half payable to the Copyright Agency for distribution and half to be held in an escrow account to be dealt with on final determination of the matter. The Tribunal heard the matter in September 2020 and has reserved its final judgment.
Education Licence – Schools
Universities Australia (UA) The remuneration agreement between the Copyright Agency and UA (on behalf of 39 participating institutions) expired on 31 December 2018. Copyright Agency and UA were not able to reach an agreement on the remuneration payable by the universities sector for the copying and communication of copyright material and the appropriate method of sampling to monitor this use.
Media Monitoring Organisations (MMOs) The Company’s licensees, media monitoring organisations Isentia Pty Ltd (Isentia), Meltwater Pty Ltd (Meltwater) and Streem Pty Ltd, commenced proceedings in the Copyright Tribunal to seek a licence for their media monitoring activities. Each of these parties has previously been licensed by the Copyright However,Agency. all rejected the CA’s proposed new industry model licence and made application to the Copyright Tribunal. The matter was set down to be heard in October 2020 but was adjourned part-heard after the CA and Streem reached an agreement on licence terms and Streem discontinued its Theapplication.remainder of the hearing against Isentia and Meltwater took place in February 2021. On Friday 15 October 2021, the Copyright Tribunal delivered its decision, requiring that the Company grant a licence to Isentia and Meltwater on terms that would result in a significant reduction in the licence fees payable by Meltwater and Isentia. At the time of writing Copyright Agency is consulting with legal advisers and considering whether to seek judicial review of the decision.
ANDNEGOTIATIONSAGREEMENTS
in visual arts licensing fees $2.3m total licences for otherinstitutionseducation 1,000newly-licensededucationinstitutions 75 in commercialnewlicences $378k commercialextendedlicences 803 While the impact of COVID-19 on the copyright fees we collect for members has so far been relatively small, COVID-19 has affected other sources of revenue for our members. This includes sources of revenue for creators from public interactions such as appearances at literary festivals, speaker fees and school visits. LICENCES highlights
The last time that the Copyright Tribunal was asked to determine the rate for universities was 20 years ago. The Tribunal heard the case in September 2020. The Tribunal has made interim orders regarding the payments to be made by universities until it makes its final determination.
Thelicence.statutory licence does not apply to government-related entities that are not ‘the Crown’, or to local governments, but Copyright Agency offers other licences for them (based on authorisation from members).
Similarly, Copyright Agency made an application to the Copyright Tribunal to set a new rate and monitoring system for the university sector, when it became clear that these matters would not be resolved by negotiation.
Education In response to COVID-19 Copyright Agency provided a reassurance to policy makers that our members were aware of the challenges that teachers were facing, and that they supported practical approaches to enable teachers to deliver online teaching during lockdowns. In response, our members agreed provided the following assistance to schools; a special ‘story-time’ arrangement from Australian Society of Authors and Australian Publishers Association to allow teachers to record readings of stories for children to view online; a webpage on Online Teaching in Lockdowns; provided flexible payment plans to individually licensed education institutions experiencing difficulties; and agreed to pause data collection from schools. In addition, Copyright Agency has made an application to the Copyright Tribunal to assist with new data collection methodologies from schools that harness opportunities provided by new technologies and reduce the reporting burden on teachers.
LICENCES
Government The statutory licence for governments allows Commonwealth, State and Territory government departments and agencies to make any use of any copyright content for the services of the government. Copyright Agency has been ‘declared’ by the Copyright Tribunal as the collecting society authorised to collect and distribute ‘equitable remuneration’ for government copying of text images and print music. Copyright Agency also licenses, as agent for its members, the communication of text, images and print music. In 2020-21 agreements were finalised with the Commonwealth Government (to June 2022); the ACT Government (to June 2022); Northern Territory Government (to June 2024) and Western Australia Government (to June There2022).arearrangements with State and Territory governments for payment of royalties from sales of survey plans that are separate to the arrangements for other activities done by governments under the statutory
Licence fees paid by the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments are based on a peremployee (full-time equivalent) rate of $7.30 per year.
LICENCES
Commercial In 2021, the Commercial licensing team acquired 58 new clients resulting in about $378,000 of new business in licence fees from the corporate sector. This is in addition to the retention of 803 existing clients valued at $5.6m. The team continued monitoring corporate websites for possible infringements for the use of newspaper content, with a view to increased uptake of licences in the corporate sector. In addition to the general licence for corporations, Copyright Agency issue licences covering the specific requirements of; pharmaceutical companies; public relations (PR) companies; law firms; and Australianbased firms with offices in other countries. Despite the challenges of COVID-19 the team continued to engage with current and potential licensees in a variety of ways. The Commercial Licensing team conducted 65 training sessions with a range of organisations around Australia, including; Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA) – Online Annual conference October 2020; Local Government Professional, Victoria –Corporate Partners – Online February 2021; LGNSW – Conference in the month of November 2020; Association of Corporate Counsel – Online November 2020; and the Association of Regulatory and Clinical Scientists – Conference June 2021.
LICENCES and support initiatives
The 2020 John Fries Award continued to be recognised as an important national award for emerging and early career artists. The 2020 JFA finalists’ exhibition was postponed until March 2O21. That exhibition was a celebratory conclusion to the decade long partnership between the Fries Family and Copyright Agency presenting the John Fries Award.
Copyright Agency will continue to support visual artists through the Cultural Fund and in April this year announced the launch of the ‘Copyright Agency Partnerships’ three-year commission series. In partnership with leading Australian arts institutions 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Sydney), the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Melbourne), and the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane), CAP will support mid-career and established visual artists with an $80,000 artistic commission and solo exhibition opportunity.
Working with an organisation like Copyright Agency is priceless for us” Troy MagpieCasey,Goose
Visual Arts Licensing Copyright Agency licenses the use of fine art and other artworks. Most of the artwork licences are pay-per-use (rather than ‘all of repertoire’). There are also ‘blanket’ licences that cover agreed uses for all artist members, in advance of the use. The uses are reported after the event. This type of licence is used in conjunction with long-term licence agreements and to assist administration of high volume uses. In 2020-21 Copyright Agency licensed work worth nearly $2.3m which included significant licences collaborations such as; Babarra and Kip & Co; fashion with the MAARA Collective; Adairs with Miimi & Jiind; Western Australia Museum digital presentation; New Zealand’s Tepapa Museum Surrealist exhibition; a fabric collaboration for Babarra art centre with Magpie Goose; a product branding licence with L’Oréal; a book licence for Albert Namatjira; a furniture collaboration between Billy and Lulu Cooley of Maruku arts centre and Altone Furniture; and Katie Nalgood prints for Adina Apartment Hotel’s Vienna LicencesBelvedere.forpublic galleries, auction houses and commercial entities contributed 78% of the licensing revenue this year. Artists licensed include those mentioned above, plus Robert Klippel, Salvador Dali, Picasso, Betty Muffler, Joy Hester, Lindsay Bird, Elisabeth Cummings and many more.
Support Initiatives
RESALE ROYALTY SCHEME
The artists’ resale royalty scheme commenced on 9 June 2010. Copyright Agency was appointed by the Minister for the Arts to manage the scheme in May 2010. The scheme requires payment of a 5% royalty of the sale price for certain resales of artworks by Australian artists. It also requires the reporting of all resales with a sales value of $1,000 or more to Copyright Agency, with sufficient information to determine if a royalty is payable. A royalty is not payable if the seller acquired the work before the scheme commenced. There is a dedicated website –resaleroyalty.org.au – which has an online reporting facility, and online registration for artists and art market professionals to provide contact ASdetails.at30 June 2021, the scheme had generated over $10m in royalties from nearly 24,000 resales benefitting over 2,200 artists. In the last financial year, over $1.6 million in royalties were generated, a 19% increase on the prior year. Artists are eligible to receive royalties at all stages of their careers, from emerging to senior, living all around Australia, including in remote communities. Sixty five percent of artists receiving royalties are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. It was fantastic to see 214 artists receive a royalty for the very first time, as the team continued engagement activities to create a high level of awareness and understanding of the scheme amongst art market professionals. Like many the team adjusted aspects of their services (in particular, stakeholder engagement, research and monitoring activities) in early 2020 due to the impact of COVID-19, and this has continued for 2020–21. Finally, following the Australia¬–United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement, we are expecting to enter into reciprocal arrangements with the UK, which has had a scheme in place since 2006. The resale royalty scheme recognises the ongoing effort it takes for artists to maintain a creative practice. Artworks take on a life of their own after they leave the studio, and so I think the scheme is wonderful because it ensures artists benefit from that growth as well… It's so important that artists exercise their copyright in their work, just like other creative industries.’ Troy MagpieCasey,Goose
Resale Royalty
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INITIATIVES AND SUPPORT fostering creativity, communication and learning increase in Reading
Cultural Fund Cultural Fund continues to provide targeted support for Australian writers, visual artists and wentarts,aWhileandkeycreativewritersgrantsWepublishers.offercareer-sustainingandfellowshipsforandvisualartists,organisationsandindustrystakeholders,resourcesforteachers.COVID-19hashadsignificantimpactonthemanyprojectsstillahead.
subscribers from 19,831 to 21,916 10.5% to reviewssupportofAustralianbooks partnershipsNew resourcescurriculum-mappedfreely-availableonReadingAustralia 230 Cultural Fund awards in grants and Fellowships $1.97M
The Cultural Fund has continued its partnership with the key national writers’ festivals to present Australian writers to readers, in person and online, as well as supporting podcasts, reviews of new Australian books, national literary awards, and significant grants to create new literary and artistic works. Australia
“Through commission,thismy work will be able to reflect on and celebrate queer South Asian diaspora on a literally huge scale. This project has decolonial motivations and being awarded this opportunity with 4A reflects global shifts started by grassroots Black and Indigenous led movements.” TextaQueen
PARTNERSHIPS
In April, the Copyright Agency’s Cultural Fund launched Copyright Agency Partnerships (CAP), a threeyear commission series in partnership with 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Sydney), the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (Melbourne), and the Institute of Modern Art (Brisbane). This provides support for mid-career or established visual artists with an $80,000 artistic commission and solo exhibition Theopportunity.inaugural CAP recipient, TextaQueen will create their new work, Bollywouldn’t, with 4A culminating in a significant solo show at 4A’s Haymarket gallery in late 2022.
Copyright Agency Partnerships (CAP)
SupportingAustralianCreativity
Cultural Fund The Cultural Fund regularly supports our key industry trade associations and education stakeholders – the Australian Publishers Association (APA), the Australian Society of Authors (ASA), Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA), AATE/ALEA National Conference and important cultural institutions to create opportunities for members, writers, visual artists, teachers and publishers. In 2019 we partnered with the Australia Council for the Arts and Macquarie University to support the research project, Success Story: International rights sales of Australian-authored books 2008–2018, which has recently been published, highlighting the growth and increased demand for Australian books overseas. In April, the Australian Publishers Association (APA) presented BookUp, a timely book industry conference to discuss challenges such as cancel culture, publishing during COVID, implementing inclusivity in publishing, and future growth in publishing.
INITIATIVES AND SUPPORT fostering creativity, communication and learning
In an effort to foster greater cultural diversity in the Australian publishing industry, the Cultural Fund again partnered with the Australia Council and Australian publishers to support a new industry-led initiative, Open Book, offering a paid internship program with applications encouraged from a range of cultural and linguistic Sydneybackgrounds.Contemporary art fair moved online once again in 2021, launching Explore Sydney Contemporary in November with a dedicated space for a special series to highlight and promote work by First Nations artists. The Cultural Fund supported UNTOLD –a series of artist video portraits that bring to life the language, Country and stories of First Nations artists.
INITIATIVES AND SUPPORT
The Fellowship has had a significant impact on both writers’ careers and they are both working steadily on their projects. Khaled Sabsabi, the 2020 Visual Artist Fellow will exhibit work created withthe Fellowship at Campbelltown Arts Centre during Sydney Festival in January 2022.
The Copyright Agency’s two $80,000 Fellowships continue to attract highcalibre applications from Australian Inwriters.2020 the Author Fellowship was awarded to the established writer, Rodney Hall; and the Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing to Krissy Kneen.
For this year, the established writer, Robert Drewe has been awarded the Author Fellowship to write a novel, Nimblefoot, based on Australia’s first international sporting hero of “pedestrianism” (walking matches); and Anna Krien has been awarded the Fellowship for Non-Fiction Writing for ‘The Long Goodbye: Australia’s Great Barrier Reef’, I investigating the science, economics, energy policy and players involved in the Reef’s Inchallenges.2021new books by many of our past Fellowship recipients were published to great critical acclaim. In May, Allen & Unwin published Kathryn Heyman’s Fury (2017 Author Fellow); along with Bernadette Brennan’s (2018 Non-Fiction Writing Fellow) biography of Gillian Mears, Leaping into Waterfalls: The Enigmatic Gillian Mears in September. In November, Scribe published Crimes against Nature by Jeff Sparrow (2018 Author Fellow).
Fellowships
Edwina West from Sydney’s Oakhill College is the 2021 Reading Australia Fellow for Teachers of English and Literacy for the project, Combating Aliteracy with Australian Literature. Edwina will use the Fellowship to develop a resource and toolkit for teachers and teacher librarians to help students to better select books, with a focus on diverse and engaging Australian writing. She will also create a ‘bank’ of Young Adult fiction, which teachers and teacher librarians can use to effectively pitch books to students in terms of interest, relevance and reading ability.
fostering creativity, communication and learning
The Copyright Agency supports major publishing industry prizes: the Australian Book Industry Awards, sponsoring the General Non-Fiction Book of the Year, which Julia Baird won in 2021 for Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark (Fourth Estate); and the Educational Publishing Awards Australia, sponsoring the Primary Publisher of the Year, awarded to PLD Promoting Literacy Development, in 2021 and the Secondary Publisher of the Year for 2021, to Jacaranda. We continue to support two Queensland Literary Awards: the Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a poetry collection by a single author, and the David Unaipon Award for an emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander writer.
The national Stella Prize for 2022 has been expanded to include poetry titles, and we are again supporting the stipend for each longlisted author. The 2021 shortlist announcement for the Miles Franklin Literary Award (MFLA) returned as an in-person event at the Mitchell Library, as well
National Awards
Another MFLA shortlisted author, Andrew Pippos, has recently been announced as the winner of the 2021 Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, for his debut novel, Lucky's! Congratulations also to Ceridwen Dovey, who set a record winning the top UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing two years in a row. See Awards and Sponsorships for the complete list.
The Cultural Fund supports regular fiction and non-fiction essays in Sydney Review of Books, Australian Book Review and Meanjin and collaborates with Griffith Review projects that support new First Nation’s work and a new emerging writer competition.
Media, literary magazines & journals Published reviews of new Australian books help Australian writers and publishers to reach readers. This year the Cultural Fund supported regular reviews in Guardian Australia and in many literary magazines and journals. Our partnership with the Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism has resulted in a weekly poetry column from Sarah Holland-Batt in the Weekend Australian and support for the Emerging Critics in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Brisbane Times and WA Today. Following on from the success of Sarah Holland-Batt’s column, the University of Queensland Press recently published these poetry columns in Fishing for Lightning
INITIATIVES AND SUPPORT fostering creativity, communication and learning as being live-streamed nationwide for the first time in the Award’s history. The Cultural provides cash prizes to the shortlisted writers and helps to promote their work to readers. This year’s shortlist comprised Robbie Arnott, Aravid Adiga, Amanda Lohrey, Andew Pippos, and Madeleine Watts. In July, Amanda Lohrey won the prestigious award with The Labyrinth (Text Publishing).
This year we again supported the Sydney Morning Herald’s Best Young Australian Novelists Award with Vivian Pham’s The Coconut Children (Vintage) winning the important prize, and we saw the return of the Age Book of the Year Award, which MFLA shortlisted author Robbie Arnott won for The Rain Heron (Text).
Reading Australia Reading Australia finished FY 2020 –21 just shy of 22,000 subscribers. With numbers growing from 19,831 to 21,916, there are 10.5% more teachers making use of our resources for Australian texts. These now number 230, an additional 25 since the last financial year (92 primary, 138 secondary). We also added 4 new colouring sheets designed exclusively by Bundjalung illustrator Charmaine Ledden-Lewis, and are working with the ABC to supplement existing resources with bonus content.
INITIATIVES AND SUPPORT
fostering creativity, communication and learning
The 2021 Reading Australia Fellow, announced at the AATE/ALEA National Conference in July, is Edwina West from Oakhill College (NSW). Edwina’s project focuses on aliteracy: the state of being able to read but choosing not to. With her $15,000 Fellowship she aims to find a more flexible approach to connecting students with diverse and engaging Australian texts. subscribed teachers, librarians, students and academics 22,000 more makingteachersuseofresources 10.5% andresourcescounting 230
The 2020-21 Michael Gordon Fellows are: Adam Carey – The Age – Closing the gap in Indigenous education Saber Baluch and Gavin Blyth – SBS Insight –"From War to Wagga"
Julia Baird Phosphorescence: On awe, wonder and things that sustain you when the world goes dark (Fourth Estate)
Vivian Pham The Coconut Children (Vintage) Runners Up $1,000 each Jessie Tu A Lonely Girl Is a Dangerous Thing (Allen & Unwin) K.M. (Kate) Kruimink A Treacherous Country (Allen & Unwin)
Publisher of the Year PLD Promoting Literacy Development
Secondary Publisher of the Year
TWO winners for the first time ever: Kgshak Akec Hopeless Kingdom Josh Kemp Strangest Places Educational Publishing Awards Australia Primary(FY22)
Melbourne Press Club – Michael Gordon Journalism Fellowship
Anna Henderson – ABC News – The Battle to ensure hard won Native Title rights
Jacaranda
Best Young Australian Novelists Awards for Winner2021 $8,000
Kristine Ziwica – The Saturday Paper – Covid-19 and women's economic security Queensland Literary Awards FY22
David Thomas Henry Wright , A Condensed History of the Australian Camel Runners-up $1,000 each Dominique Hecq Smacked Rashida Murphy The Bonesetter’s Fee And Other Stories Daisy Utemorrah Award for an Unpublished Manuscript of junior or YA fiction by an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander writer 2020 Winner $15,000 and a publishing contract with Magabala Books.
David Unaipon Award for an Emerging Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Writer Winner Queensland$15,000Literary Awards FY22
Miles Franklin Literary Award Shortlist 2021 $5,000 each Amanda Lohrey (winner) The Labyrinth (Text Publishing) Aravind Adiga Amnesty (Pan Macmillan)
Timna Jacks – The Age – "No Dirty Gas Projects" –Fracking in the NT Danielle Kutchel – Star News Group – Disability issues among migrant communities in Melbourne Benjamin Silvester – The Citizen/The Junction –Remote housing in the NT
Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection Winner $15,000 Ouyang Yu (Ginninderra Press)
Daniel Davis Wood At the Edge of the Solid World (Brio Books) Andrew Pippos Lucky’s (Pan Macmillan)
Robbie Arnott The Rain Heron (Text Publishing)
Age Book of the Year 2021 Winner $10,000 Robbie Arnott The Rain Heron Australian Book Industry Awards 2021 General Non-Fiction Book of the Year
AWARDS AND SPONSORSHIPS
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Madeleine Watts The Inland Sea (Pushkin Press)
Carmel Bird Digital Literary Award 2021 (Spineless Wonders) announced 3 Sept Winner $3000
Carl Merrison & Hakea Hustler Dirran
Dorothy Hewett Award for an Unpublished Manuscript 2021
Jo Chandler, ‘The COVID-climate collision’ Jackson Ryan, ‘To the Dragon Palace and back’
Louise Milligan Witness (Hachette Australia)
National Indigenous Story Awards 2020 Winner $5000 Mykaela Saunders 'Fire Bug' Finalists $1,000 each Johnathan James Binge AKA Caution 'Mum' Mi-kaisha Masella 'Brand New' Stella Prize Longlist 2021 $1,000 each
Cath Moore Metal Fish, Falling Snow (Text Publishing) Intan Paramaditha The Wandering (Penguin Random House)
2020 Runners up (we support the runners up as well)
Stephanie Chew (Presbyterian Ladies’ College)
Phillippe Mouawad (Georges River Grammar) Jeremy Simonetto (St Patrick’s College)
The UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing 2021 2021 Winner Ceridwen Dovey, ‘Everlasting free-fall’ (Alexander)
The Pascall Prize for Arts Criticism Winner Anwen$5,000Crawford The Monthly, “New air in familiar rooms”, “Ready steady gone” and “Girls don’t cry: Arlo Parks and Phoebe Bridgers”
The UNSW Press Bragg Student Prize for Science Writing 2020 2020 Winner Elena Canty (Ivanhoe Girls’ Grammar School)
Mirandi Riwoe Stone Sky Gold Mountain (University of Queensland Press) Ellena Savage Blueberries (Text Publishing)
Nardi Simpson Song of the Crocodile (Hachette Australia) Elizabeth Tan Smart Ovens for Lonely People ( Brio Books) Jessie Tu A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing (Allen & Unwin)
Evie Wyld (winner) The Bass Rock (Penguin Random House) Rebecca Giggs Fathoms: the world in the whale (Scribe Publications) S.L. Lim Revenge: Murder in Three Parts (Transit Lounge)
The UNSW Press Bragg Prize for Science Writing 2020 2020 Winner Ceridwen Dovey 'True Grit' (Wired) 2020 Runners up (we support the runners up as well)
2021 Runners up (we support the runners up as well) Elora Guirguis (Mater Dei Catholic College)
The June Andrews Award for Arts Journalism Winner $5,000 Kelly Burke Guardian Australia, “Neighbours actor allegedly removed from set after complaints of racism by Indigenous actor Shareena Clanton”, “Neighbours: more actors come forward with allegations of racist slurs and discrimination on set” and “If Neighbours racism allegations happened in US there would be ‘swift’ repercussions, Remy Hii says”
Laura Jean McKay The Animals in That Country (Scribe Publications)
AWARDS AND SPONSORSHIPS
2021 Runners up (we support the runners up as well)
Walkley Foundation Mid-Year Awards 2021
The UNSW Press Bragg Student Prize for Science Writing 2021 2021 Winner Emilia Danne (St John Bosco College)
Ricky French ‘The Case of the Missing Frogs’ Konrad Marshall ‘Jeepers Creepers
THE YEAR THAT WAS Megan Cope Minjerribah, Quandamooka Country, North Stradbroke Island QLD, Photo by Rhett Hammerton Reading Australia resources resources Book covers supplied Teacher and students Photo courtesy Firefly Education Vivian Pham Photo courtesy Penguin Random House TextaQueen Headshot by Leah Jing The Best AustralianWritingScience2021 Dyani Lewis (Editor), foreword by Cathy Foley, cover design by Josephine Pajor-Markus, NewSouth Publishing, November 2021 Blak Douglas Photo by Nick Cubbin Lee Walker Photo by Lindsay Edwards Cathy Wilcox Photo by Caitlin Hicks Maxine Beneba-Clarke Photo by Olivia Tran Jill Eddington Photo by David Kelly Robbie Arnott Photo by Peter Mathew Sydney Story Factory Photo by Jacquie Manning, image supplied by Story Factory OUR BOARD Arthur Baker Photo supplied Jane Curry Photo supplied Jason Eades Photo supplied Richard Eccles Photo by Lightbulb Studio Adele Ferguson Photo supplied Cath Godfrey Photo by JOM Kirsty Murray Photo supplied Anne Maria Nicholson Photo supplied Dr Oliver Watts Photo supplied Leslie Loble Photo supplied OUR MEMBERS Abdul Abdullah Photo supplied Copyright motif Created by Copyright Agency FLEX Image by Shutterstock Member Portal Created by Copyright Agency LICENSES Student in library Photo by Shutterstock Parliament House Photo by Shutterstock Workplace sharing Photo by Shutterstock Models wearing Magpie Goose clothing Photo by Kalumburu Photography Collective Laura Jones Photo by Rachel Kara MonashChancelleryUniversity building ceiling design incorporating Margaret Preston’s Tea-tree and Hakea Petiolaris (detail), 1936 © Estate of Margaret Preston/ Copyright Agency. Photo by Rhiannon Slattery, courtesy of Monash University. Design by Ashton Raggatt MacDougall Architects (ARM Architecture) & Kane Construction. Artist Lakkari Pitt’s work Dhagaan (Brother) featured in the new ANZ head office in Sydney © Lakkari Pitt/Licensed by Copyright Agency SUPPORTING AUSTRALIAN CREATIVITY Doris Thomas Photo by Edwina Richards Nicholas Mangan Photo by Greg Ford and Monash University Ellena Savage Photo by Charlie Kinross Mandy Ord Photo courtesy of Mandy Ord Felicity Castagna Photo by Mikel Krist Sophie Cunningham Photo by Mathew Lynn Copyright with RBGV Andy Jackson 2021 Create grant by Rachael Wenona Guy Mirandi Riwoe Headshot by Claudia Baxter Megan Cope Minjerribah, Quandamooka Country, North Stradbroke Island QLD, Photo by Rhett Hammerton INITIATIVES AND SUPPORT TextaQueen with abstract video projection over their bare brown upper torso, face, and black curly hair. Headshot by Leah Jing Edwina West Reading Australia Fellow 2021 Photo by Andrew West Non-Fiction Fellow Anna Krien Photo courtesy EMG Author Fellow Robert Drewe Photo by Tracy Drewe AWARDS AND SPONSORSHIPS Adam Suckling with Julia Baird at the ABIA Awards Photo by Monique Ferguson ABIA 2021 Courtesy of ABIA Daisy Utemorrah Image courtesy of the Western Australian Premier’s Book Awards of Carl Merrison and Hakea Hustler accepting the 2021 Daisy Utemorrah Award for their junior fiction manuscript 'Dirran' EPAA 2021 Courtesy of EPAA Miles Franklin Literary Award Courtesy of Perpetual Sydney Story Factory Photo by Jacquie Manning, image supplied by Story Factory Ceridwen Dovey Photo supplied Anwen Crawford Self-portrait holding camera reflected in a mirror Mid-Year Walkey Awards Photo courtesy of the Walkley Foundation CHAIR’S MESSAGE Dr Kate Harrison Photo supplied CEO’S MESSAGE Adam Suckling Photo supplied
PHOTOGRAPHY