BIG BOOST FOR THE SCREEN SECTOR:

The ‘Make it Australian’ coalition, supported by the Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG), the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG), the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and Screen Producers Australia (SPA) welcomed the passage through Parliament of measures to increase the level of support for screen content provided through vital tax incentives.

“The Parliament’s actions today mark the beginning of an exciting new chapter for small screen production and will boost the amount and quality of Australian content reaching Australian audiences on the small screen,” said Alaric McAusland, Executive Director of the ADG.

Read the full press release here.

The Australian screen industry has led the way in getting back to work and rebuilding the national economy during the pandemic. But the government announced changes to tax incentives last year that will make it much harder for certain genres to be financed and it relaxed content rules for traditional TV platforms which will lead to fewer productions across the board and most alarmingly, there is now no regulatory obligation for any Australian commercial TV station to produce or show Australian children’s content. Documentary has been undervalued in these changes too. Screen Producers Australia modelling estimates an overall annual decline in production from this partial deregulation of $100m.

The ADG and other guilds took to Canberra in March under the Make It Australian banner demanding government reconsider its position and that it also looked to ensure the big streamers made a fair contribution to Australian stories by regulating their levels of investment in Australian content. Read more here.