The Arts Minister Just Belted Out Some Cold Chisel With A Random Busker In Bendigo
This probably isn't the support artists were asking for with the National Day of Action last week.
The Minister for Communications and the Arts, Senator Mitch Fifield, dropped by Bendigo this afternoon to announce a new $245,000 funding package for closed circuit TV cameras in the city’s mall. But this news was a lot harder to focus on once he started performing an impromptu rendition of Cold Chisel’s classic track ‘Flame Trees’ with a random busker.
– @SenatorFifield breaking into 'Flame Trees' with a busker in #Bendigo pic.twitter.com/Otw5jZYRmw
— Sarah Lawrence (@sarahtlawrence_) June 21, 2016
The worst thing about this video is that it only goes for 11 seconds. We don’t even get to see him do the chorus!
Fifield’s previously gone on the record to talk about his love of Cold Chisel, though the last time he saw them play live was back in 1984 at the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Cold Chisel frontman Jimmy Barnes actually dropped into federal parliament a few months ago to put the topic of music industry hardship on the political agenda. He even performed ‘Flame Trees’, though sadly Senator Fifield was stuck in a Cabinet meeting and missed out.
The Coalition government is copping a lot of heat from artists at the moment over their $300 million cuts to arts funding over the past three years. Fifield, in particular, has been criticised for his failure to articulate any actual arts policy at the National Arts Election Debate earlier this month.
This backing vocal support of one musician on the street probably isn’t what Australian artists were calling for in the National Day of Action on the issue last week. But if there’s one thing there hasn’t been enough of this election campaign it’s senior government ministers going off-script and belting out Aussie rock classics. Good on Senator Fifield for having a go, but we have to say, Sarah Blasko did it better.