Beloved singer-songwriter Tina Arena has called for a banking-style royal commission into the Australian music industry during an appearance on the ABC‘s The Weekly.
Speaking with host Charlie Pickering on Wednesday night, Arena said the industry urgently needs to do something about inequality.
“I just think that it’s an industry that could do with some really very serious gardening and weeding and tidying up, like most industries really,” she said.
“There’s such an incredible level of inequality… I would probably incite that something like a banking royal commission happens in the music business and we just clean it out a bit.
“A fish stinks from the head down – if it’s not great at the top, [it’s] certainly not going to filter out through the bottom of it. So, there’s quite a bit of work to do in that industry, absolutely.”
Last year, a study found women are “chronically disadvantaged” in the Australian music industry, and that “male artists and voices overwhelmingly dominate”.
Tina Arena recently threw her support behind the first-ever Australian Women In Music Awards, which has just opened nominations for its debut event.
Watch part of Tina Arena’s appearance on The Weekly, below.
https://twitter.com/theweeklytv/status/1004324653622411264
