Arena slammed the lack of support given to those in the entertainment industry throughout the pandemic during an impassioned interview on Studio 10.That night, a relaxed Arena sipped from a martini as she was joined by the members of the Australian comedy troupe Sooshi Mango for a 70-minute discussion on Instagram Live. Midway through the video, Arena returned to the topic she’d spoken so passionately about on-air earlier that day. She revealed that she had demanded her May Enchante national tour go ahead despite warnings from her tour promoter about the possibility of looming lockdowns (by what she calls “divine intervention”, the tour finished just before the current Delta outbreak plunged many Australian cities back into lengthy lockdowns). “I refuse, as a woman, to be told what it is that I should do. I know not everybody is going to understand, but I absolutely refuse to buy in to propaganda, and I turned around and said to myself: ‘I believe in this show, and I believe we need to just get on with our lives,’” she revealed. “The work and the risks of what we do on a live level is very difficult for all of you to understand,” she told those watching, noting Sooshi Mango’s own upcoming comedy tour had now been postponed twice. Arena said she believed their rescheduled tour dates of January 2022 would go ahead, telling them she didn’t think lockdowns would be an acceptable practice by next year. “If any of the states think they have the jurisdiction to continue to lock people up in 2022, there’s something very, very wrong in this country. It’s something that’s completely unrealistic,” she said. Melbourne-based Arena also appeared to urge her followers to vote out Victorian Premier Dan Andrews at the next state election, encouraging them to “take the time to think about who they want to direct this state.”“When it comes time to vote for those that we choose to work for us, perhaps next time around we pay a little bit more attention as to who we wish to be at the steering wheel. Because quite honestly, it has been the greatest disappointment when a city as beautiful as ours, which was deemed the most liveable in the world … when you look at it now, it’s not at all the most liveable city in the world. I really hope that when it comes to the next election, people take the time to think about who it is they want to direct this state,” she said.“I really hope Victorians really take the time to think about that over the next 12 months before we go to the polls, because I will be going to the polls with a much different intention.”An impassioned Arena drew widespread praise for her extraordinary Studio 10 interview on Friday, in which she slammed the double standards between sporting and musical events and declared Australian artists should be “done” lending their talents to charitable causes given how little support they’ve received during the pandemic.“If anything goes wrong, the artistic community has always lifted their sleeves up. We’ve gone in there and done what we needed to do. We’re very happy to play that role to help people – it’s what we do,” she told interviewer Angela Bishop.“Now we’re in trouble, is someone helping us? No. It’s amazing how people just fly away and disappear, however they’re very quick to ask us to work for free, to relinquish any kind of renumeration from sales of record.“You know what? DONE. We’re done, and now we’re saying it. Just stop this ridiculous, preposterous behaviour. It’s got to stop.”
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