Greens promise to pay Aussie artists nearly $800 a week

With punters flocking back to festivals and concerts, the Greens are proposing artists should always have a financial cushion to fall back on.

Up to 10,000 artists could sign up for the Greens’ proposed pilot program in which they would be paid $772.60 a week for a year.

The party argues the Artists Wage would free creatives to focus on their craft after struggling to make ends meet following two years of cancellations due to the pandemic and cuts to government arts funding.

‘The arts are a core part of Australian culture and contribute so much to our economy. We must do everything we can to make sure our artists can continue creating,’ Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said on Saturday.

‘The arts helped us all get through lockdowns and now it’s time we are there for them.’

The program, to…