The Make It Australian campaign for more local TV and movie production was launched in 2017. Now with a new government in power, there is action on some of its aims.
News Corp national weekend political editor James Campbell reported on Sunday:
On Monday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke will launch the National Cultural Policy, intended to steer arts and culture sector policy for the next five years.
At its centre is a plan to force streaming platforms, such as Disney, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Paramount and Apple TV, to make programs in Australia, a move it estimates could generate as many as 10,000 jobs.
The Federal Government [will] force streaming giants to spend 20 per cent of their revenue on making local content.
Streamers’ revenues in Australia are estimated to have topped $2.4 billion in 2021.
A requirement the industry spend 20 per cent of that revenue on local content would create Aussie productions worth about $480 million.
While some streamers more than others have been significantly increasing funding of Australian productions, the new legislation will set minimum funding targets for them to reach every year.
The Australian screen sector has long called for more incentives to increase the amount of local production. The Make It Australia campaign saw the various screen industry organisations come together to make more noise.
It was noise that the Labor party, then in opposition, listened to. So much so that the then opposition spokesman on the arts, Tony Burke, spoke at the 2022 relaunch of Make It Australian.
Now in government, Labor is moving on past promises to review a system where the FTA broadcasters have had quotas for six decades, but the expanding streaming platforms have none.
Tony Burke with Bryan Brown in 2021
In 2021, Burke wrote in The Australian:
If only Australia had a government … committed to creating jobs and protecting our culture.
In 2013 that I first sounded the alarm about the impact TV streaming might have on Australian content.
For the last eight years Labor has continued to sound the alarm but the Liberal Arts Minsters George Brandis, Mitch Fifield and Paul Fletcher have just kept hitting the snooze button.
While the fine print on the policy changes is yet to be revealed, this is what Make It Australian has been calling for:
1. Immediate introduction of new rules to ensure that Australians see Australian stories on streaming platforms.
Currently, only free-to-air broadcasters and Pay TV providers are subject to Australian local content regulations. No such obligations apply to subscription video on demand (SVOD) services such as Netflix, Stan and Amazon Prime Video.
2. Well-funded public broadcasters and screen agencies.
The ABC, SBS and Screen Australia have all suffered a succession of significant funding cuts since the Coalition came to power in 2013.
3. Review the damaging changes to commercial free-to-air Australian content rules.
The rules for Australian content on commercial free-to-air television have also recently been significantly watered down, with less content required overall and the removal of minimum safeguards for children’s television.
Members of the screen sector have long lobbied for mandatory funding. Shortly after TV arrived in Australia in 1961, there was only an estimated 1% of local productions on air.
There was a memorable march through the streets of Melbourne nearly a decade later with actors including Gerrard Kennedy and Terry Donovan carrying a coffin warning about the death of local productions without content quotas.
There have been different campaigns over the years since local quotas were introduced. They have focused on children’s TV, producer offsets and more recently the streaming sector.
Even though Labor had promised a sector review, the campaign didn’t back off when Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke came to power.
In November last year, screen industry heavyweights arrived at Parliament House, Canberra, as campaign ambassadors of the Make It Australian campaign, where they, alongside a large number of screen industry leaders, continued to lobby politicians.
Anthony Albanese with actors Leah Vandenberg and Hugo Weaving in Canberra
After a successful national launch of a reimagined Make It Australian Campaign in June 2022, SPA, the Australian Writers’ Guild (AWG), the Australian Directors’ Guild (ADG) and the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA)together make up Make It Australian, had high hopes for positive announcements from the Tony Burke and the Albanese Government in due course, after more than five years of campaigning.
“Recent reports from Screen Australia and ACMA have highlighted the urgent need for a regulatory plan for streaming services to make reasonable, fair, and diverse contributions to our sector. The government’s national Cultural Policy, due for release next month, is the perfect opportunity for critical regulation to be put in place to safeguard Australian stories for generations to come,” said Matthew Deaner, CEO of SPA.
The star-studded in-person delegation of A-list Australian screen practitioners in November included director Bruce Beresford, Bryan Brown, Erik Thomson, Kodie Bedford, Marta Dusseldorp, Rachel Ward, Antony Partos, Rarriwuy Hick, Rita Carmody, Rodger Corser, Sigrid Thornton, Tony Ayres, Warwick Young, along with representatives from more than 20 Australian production businesses including Cheeky Little Media, Emerald Films, Hoodlum Entertainment, Ludo Studio, Matchbox Pictures, and Wise Goat Productions.
Follow industry developments and the ramifications daily in the Mediaweek Morning Report. Subscribe to the free newsletter here.
Top image: PM Anthony Albanese with Simon Baker, Bryan Brown, Marta Dusseldorp and Justine Clarke