Comments for John O'Hagan's Blog

Comment on Market research vs news by HH

HH — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 10:46:02 +0000

The Australian should be happy it doesn’t reflect the mainstream. So much rep for the IPA that the whole thing is unnatutrally skewed in The Australians direction anyways.
Any so-called left voices are bound by ABC policy to be so unbiased they don’t count, or they come out swinging for some weird version of neutrality that has nothing to do with the reality of anyone’s own or any public take on current events. I’m looking at you Faine. In short, aargh.

Comment on Perfectly mainstream, perfectly wrong by Alex Bhathal

Alex Bhathal — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 06:08:40 +0000

And he’s also ignoring those oh, 1/2 million Australians who took to the street on Valentines Day in ’03; in a pop of 23 mill, that sort of turnout to street protests definitely includes a vast amount of ‘mainstream’ public opinion.

Comment on Can dish it but not take it by Ms Kirby

Ms Kirby — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:22:31 +0000

All power to John O’Hagan! As loveable as ever!

Comment on Post SLAM: musicians need sustainability too by heather

heather — Fri, 20 May 2011 01:32:32 +0000

Hi John,
Excellent article. I thoroughly agree with your points about minimum wage and acknowledging the greater value musicians add to our shopping/restaurant/venue precincts. I have attempted in my years of gigging and booking my bands to pay all my musicians the maximum I could. It is impossible working alone to get a negotiate a amount from venues, unless you accept next to no pay, many simply will not give you a gig. I have attempted supplementing gig fees with corporate or private function gig fees and some with cd sales though this once again transfers the costs of live music solely to the punter which should be recognised as not entirely fair. Venue owners do need to recognise and be made to acknowledge the value of live music in their venues and their precincts. There is a minimum gig pay established in SA, what are the moves for establishing one in Victoria?

Comment on Post SLAM: musicians need sustainability too by Bradley James

Bradley James — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 04:36:43 +0000

@ Brain

I think John is speaking on a for ALL musicians, wether they have agents and management or not. Melbourne consists of 1oo’s of musicians who work for each other, signed and unsigned artists, Bands (both cover and original), so the problem isn’t localized to just artists with management. It affects all those who choose/want to make a living from music (live performance being a percentage of the monthly/annual income)
I think John is just trying to open the eyes of musicians and music lovers alike. The ABS (australian bureau of statistic) suggests musicians have the skill level of surgeons and engineers. The ABS also suggests musicians make a weekly income of $500 per week. The minimum wage (nationally) is $569 per week, for a low level labor/retail/service assistant.

EVERYONE who enjoys, works and participates in the performing of live music in melbourne should read this blog.

Comment on Post SLAM: musicians need sustainability too by johnohagan

johnohagan — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:19:13 +0000

@Brian
I think I spelled out in a fair amount of detail how my suggestions could be implemented, all that’s missing is people to do the (potentially unpleasant) leg-work: me for a start, If someone would pay me (I can’t afford two jobs that don’t pay!). I’ve offered my services to the MEAA and to Music Victoria a few times, no joy so far…

Sure, people want their music for nothing; they also want their dental work gratis, doesn’t mean dentists are going to give it. In fact, if one did, the other dentists would be waiting for them in the carpark to give them some free dental work of their own.

A more realistic comparison would be the thousands of backpackers who are willing to do bar work for below minimum: while I’m sure it happens here and there, it is constrained by the fact that everyone involved knows it is illegal, and law-abiding employers do not exploit the willingness. For some reason the same exploitation is shameless, public and blatant, and often consensual, when applied to musicians.

But I’m not suggesting a descent into baseball-bat unionism, just the legal, firm but gentle, non-compulsory but effective style currently deployed for actors by the MEAA, which could be summarized as informed selective enforcement of existing awards.

Comment on Post SLAM: musicians need sustainability too by Brian Snowden

Brian Snowden — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 03:24:45 +0000

A lot of common sense here John, but how do your suggestions get implimented?
You may have noticed that this is an era in which everyone in general, not just unscrupulous publicans, want their music for nothing. I started in bands in the sixties and while there is always a lot of who-ha about the good old days, not mush has changed over the years. The artists who have made money, let alone a living, have always had competant management, and even that is no guarantee of survival. Sorry to come across as a sceptic

Comment on This is what you want, this what you get by Tweets that mention This is what you want, this what you get | John O’Hagan’s Blog -- Topsy.com

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 16:46:52 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by CentrePolicyDev(CPD) and Leigh Ewbank, Antoinette Abboud. Antoinette Abboud said: Let the debates on proportional representation and electoral reform begin http://bit.ly/a9cwDD [...]

Comment on This is what you want, this what you get by johnohagan

johnohagan — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 03:47:14 +0000

@Bernard: the first-preference pie for the Senate looks much like the left-hand pie above, only more so in terms of smaller parties (perhaps because people know a minor-party vote has a chance of success). But how the seats fall will also be skewed, in this case by the monstrous bias in favour of smaller states. Either way, it needs fixing.

BTW it is possible to combine preferential and multi-candidate electorate systems in such a way as to have the best of all three worlds: proportional representation, local representation, and preferences. I would favour something like this for both Houses.

Comment on This is what you want, this what you get by PatrickDJ

PatrickDJ — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 02:55:31 +0000

Bloody good point John,

I voted Green, I give no mandate for Tony Abbott to govern and further screw up our planet with his Monckton advised climate change denialist type policy