Ms Karan O'Loughlin:

The Chairman made a very interesting observation. When we say there is a high level of freelance work, we mean people are self-employed. A lot of people who work in the arts industry go from one production to another or one project to another, not just on a freelance basis but also on a self-employed basis. They are not companies and they do not have other employees; they are sole traders and they are engaged in that way. Part of the problem is that this sometimes creates an obstacle to the legal rights of workers because for the most part legislation applies to employees and not workers. That definition is really important. If one reads the definitions in a lot of the workplace legislation, it says it applies to employees and it gives a definition of what that is. The only legislation that comes to mind to me that does not do that is the Industrial Relations Act. The Industrial Relations Act provides for mechanisms that are not enforceable in law; they are voluntary mechanisms. Expanding or changing the term used from "employee" to "worker" would spread the protection for people and give those employed in that sort of capacity access to a lot of workplace protection and legislation.