The Guild was founded in March 1962 when a group of 17 radio writers met at the Australia Hotel in Sydney and decided to form a guild to represent their professional interests. It was originally called The Australian Radio, Television and Screenwriters' Guild. Founded on the notions of misrepresentation within Australian society, exceptional underfunding and poor professional treatment, the AWG aimed to aid in these areas. The early 60s also saw an influx of imported media from predominantly the United States and England to Australian Television. This left minimal room for the local market and severely impacted the state of the Australian Media industry. A pivotal moment in societal advancement in switching from predominantly focused radio entertainment to the television, the founders of the guild were determined to ensure Australia was not left behind. The first interim committee comprised Don Houghton,
Richard Lane, Ric Aspinall, Kay Keaveney and Lyle Martin. Nearing the end of 1962, the Australian Writers Guild was officially registered as a Trade Union in
New South Wales. This was seen as important because it provided recognition and support from other trade unions within the industry, notably
Actors' Equity and the Musicians' Union. To quote
Gillian Armstrong, a major Australian film director, 'Eleanor was not a self-promoter. She was proud and passionate and dedicated, and truly a great writer'. In 1967 Guild established the AWGIE Awards, with the first event held in 1968. These were presented to performance writers who demonstrated exceptional work within their respective fields. Created by the members, these awards aim to recognise and reward excellence in an extensive list of categories. campaign, in which other writing industry guilds united in support of keeping performative media in Australia amongst Australian creators. Peters's involvement here truly marked the AWG's involvement in "political and industrial issues such as moral rights and copyright protection, censorship, taxation and broadcasting legislation". 1972, the tenth anniversary of the AWG's founding and Peters utilized this milestone to broaden the Guilds affiliations with "the Australian film commission, the Playwrights' Conference, the "Make it Australian" Committee, the Children's Film Council, the ASA, and the Copyright Council". Later 1973 saw the guild join the Film Action Committee in order to raise media attention against visiting
Jack Valenti in the US due to his ideology towards copyright. Through to 1979, the Guild was heavily influential in the fight for performance workers rights. Australian production houses were delaying their signing of an Industry-Wide agreement to produce a standard contract that saw for writers enforced rights and fair pay. Interim Industrial Officer Roger Simpson was responsible for overseeing this aspect of the Guilds work. David Wilson overtakes Peters as the president of the guild. 1980 saw the strike against Channel 9's pay towards its writers to be one of the Guilds longest and most successful campaigns. This resulted in the network paying its workers A$250 per hour of script as opposed to the A$60 originally being received. The strike lasted six months, from November 1980 to March 1981. Throughout the 1980s, Australian performance industries were suffering from funding cuts. Tax concessions were the major focus of the Guild. Wilson sought for further government funding to help greater support the local film and television industries, offering that five out of the seven production projects taking place in Australia should be Australian written. Wilson signed off on this notion with the support of other unions to increase the appeal of local creators strengthening the local industry. Approaching the end of the 1980s, the Australian Film Committee was in close contact with the Guild, strengthening the claims and actions taken by its members. United, the unions continued to campaign against low residual fees in performative writing contracts. 1988 saw the appointment of New Guild president
Geoffrey Atherden, A Sydney University graduate infamous in his comedic screenwriting (particularly for his co-writing credits in
The Aunty Jack Show). Angela Wales is later appointed as the first executive officer, in this role she was in close discussion with the AFC. As the 1990s came in turn, the AWG had grown to have approximately 850 members and a similar amount of associates. writers received minimum rates and commissioning rights for each piece crafted for the stage. This also involved that writers would share in box office receipts, 10% to each ticket sold, one of the highest rates in the world. Late 1990s, between 1997 and 1999, AWG lobbied to ensure legislation encompassing moral rights and copyright rights for Australian creators. The
Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) Act 2000 was passed in December 2000. This protected Australian writers intellectual property and furthered the ramifications for breaking authorship integrity and workplace morality. The guild was heavily involved in this essential legislation. In 2004, the guild partnered with
The Sun-Herald and
The Sydney Morning Herald to organize the What Matters? writing competition. In 2009, the guild quit
Australian Screen Council (established in 2005) over a financial disagreement. For many years, the executive director of the organisation has been Jacqueline Woodman (now Jacqueline Elaine). In January 2019
Shane Brennan replaced
Jan Sardi as president. ==The Australian performative writing industry==