JOINT MEDIA RELEASE - COALITION WILL BACK AUSTRALIAN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS

THE HON ANGUS TAYLOR MP

 Shadow Treasurer 

PAUL FLETCHER MP

Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy 

Shadow Minister for Science and the Arts Manager of Opposition Business in the House

JOINT MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, 21 June 2024

COALITION WILL BACK AUSTRALIAN FILM AND TELEVISION PRODUCTIONS

The Coalition supports the Bill currently before the Parliament which establishes a 30 per cent Location Offset for film and television productions and clarifies the operation of the Producer Offset.

But timely passage of the Bill is at risk because Labor, bizarrely, has bundled these measures together with poorly drafted and unrelated measures that experts and legal bodies say will increase the cost of financial advice.

Labor’s incompetence has been compounded by the Greens’ grandstanding: the Greens say they will not support passage of these screen measures until Labor separately brings forward legislation establishing Australian content requirements for streaming video on demand (SVOD).

The Location Offset gives a tax rebate to producers for expenditure on eligible Australian films, television, and other projects.

Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said this is another example of Labor’s confused priorities.

“The Albanese Labor Government cares more about politics than policy,” Mr Taylor said.

“The Bill implements a number of important measures that the Coalition has been calling for some time, including the first tranche of the Quality of Advice Review.

“However, the Coalition has grave concerns with the changes to section 99FA of the Bill. As drafted, it will likely increase the costs of financial advice and put undue regulatory burden on financial advisers.

“Instead of drafting considered legislation, the government has chosen to play tricky politics by bundling it with vital reforms to the location and producer offsets for the screen sector.

“We have written to the Government calling for them to support amendments to remove the changes section 99FA from the Bill so we can secure the passage of this legislation to help Australians financial advisers and our growing film and television industry.”

Shadow Minister for the Arts Paul Fletcher said: “Until this Bill passes, the film and television production sector will not have certainty – and in turn that will mean productions are kept on hold or are lost to another country.”

“The Coalition is calling on Labor to give the sector the certainty it needs, by removing the contentious divisions from schedule 1 of the Bill.

“We have written to the Government advising that, if this is done, the Coalition will support the efficient passage of the Bill through the Parliament.

“The Coalition has consistently backed Australia’s screen production sector

“We increased the Producer Offset to 30 per cent for productions for television and streaming. We committed over $400 million under the Location Incentive, bringing a pipeline of over 30 global screen productions to Australia.

“The Location Offset will build on the success of the Coalition Government’s Location Incentive measure, which demonstrated that we can successfully build a long term pipeline of large scale global screen productions in Australia – in turn generating thousands of jobs for Australian screen professionals.

“With Labor now having suspended the Location Incentive, it is vital that legislation to increase the Location Offset to 30 per cent proceeds as quickly as possible.

“That is why we have made our constructive proposal – and we call on the Government to accept it.”