Peter Garrett (Kingsford Smith, Australian Labor Party, Minister for the Environment, Heritage and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

in reply—I thank the member for Murray for concluding her remarks with a quote from me, and I would be happy to provide her with further quotes, at length, to deal with some of the issues that she raised in debating and responding to the legislation before the House—the Screen Australia Bill 2008, the National Film and Sound Archive Bill 2008 and Screen Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2008but I do not think that is what people want to hear. I will say that the member opposite, the shadow minister for the arts, spoke about the Liberal Party’s commitment to the arts and Australian political history, but there is one thing that she neglected to address: that is the fact that, for the first time that I am aware of in Australian political history, the government of the day, the Liberal-National coalition, went to the 2007 election without an arts policy. There was no arts policy at all. We basically heard nothing from the then minister for the arts, Senator Brandis; we knew nothing of his views about the future of arts and culture in Australia. It was a glaring absence, a remarkable absence, at the time.

I say to members opposite that, rather than their description of the Rudd government’s approach to ensuring that there is fiscal prudence operating across all departments and portfolios—something that I had every expectation the opposition would in fact acknowledge and support—as slashed funding, what we are actually talking about is an efficiency dividend. That is absolutely clear. This government is tackling the inflationary pressures that were left behind by the previous government, and I do not expect any aspects or parts of my portfolio to be immune from that. At the same time, this government will ensure that Screen Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive are properly resourced. We will ensure that there is robust attention to the situations and conditions that artists across the spectrum find themselves in. We will ensure that there is a strong and clear voice of support for their endeavours. The voices that we heard from the past government—the former Treasurer, Mr Costello, and others—were voices of derision. The voices of the Rudd Labor government are voices of support.

I will refer very quickly to a couple of other remarks that the member for Murray made. I was very interested to see that she raised the discussion paper on the legal deposit issue. My understanding is that a discussion paper was committed to in 2004 and, three years later, it was produced. That seems to have been the totality of the opposition’s commitment to legal deposits. It is an issue that I will be looking at further down the track and I will endeavour to move a little more quickly than that, I have to tell you.

Finally, in relation to the shadow minister’s remarks about UNESCO, I really look forward to the opposition reviewing its approach generally to UNESCO and other UN instruments, because for 11½ years what we really had was disdain for the UN from Mr Howard, the former Prime Minister, and from members opposite. Now it seems they have discovered that UNESCO has produced a phrase that buttresses a political point they want to make here in the House. I hope this leads to better things—in other words, a more mature, more constructive multilateral engagement by the opposition with UN fora and institutions, including UNESCO. And I look forward to their support for a resale royalty. It is our intention to introduce legislation for a resale royalty scheme for visual artists. We have long said that it is a great deficiency in our system that artists, particularly Indigenous artists, whose work experiences pretty significant increases in price do not gain some measure of benefit from that. So I look forward to the support of the opposition.

As I said when we introduced these bills into the parliament on 20 February—and I do acknowledge the role played by the previous government in bringing this legislation forward in its initial phase—the government place a very high value on a creative and viable Australian film and television industry, and the passage of these bills is one means of providing support to the industry as it seeks to meet and overcome the many challenges it faces.

I note that the public consultation process showed widespread support for the new agency, which I strongly supported from day one in opposition in the Labor Party and in my capacity as shadow spokesman for arts and then shadow minister for the arts. I want to acknowledge and thank all those who took time to provide submissions. While all the submissions could not be acted upon, nevertheless they did inform the overall process and will continue to inform Screen Australia as it goes into its establishment phase. If Screen Australia is to do the job it is being set up to do, it cannot simply be an amalgam of the three agencies which will be merged into it, although the government acknowledges the very fine efforts of these agencies over many years. But Screen Australia cannot operate in distinct silos nor, on merging, with three separate cultures. It must become a unified single entity with a fresh perspective on the challenges which the Australian film and television industry faces.

The government expects Screen Australia to adopt a balanced approach to the various functions which it is required to undertake, to offer leadership to the industry during a period of significant change and to be efficient in its operations so that it maximises funding available for its programs. As Screen Australia will have a number of diverse functions and a broad range of stakeholder interests to consider, the board and management will need to ensure wide consultation in relation to agency priorities, objectives and processes to ensure all voices can be heard as the new entity emerges. However, I caution that the industry will need to be patient as the agency builds up to full capacity. The industry must also seek to change, grow and become more sustainable. The new funding body cannot and will not have all the answers. It will operate alongside the producer offset, and its functions and operations must be seen in that light. The government is committed to putting the framework for change in place, but the extent of the change which occurs will largely be determined by industry willingness to embrace new approaches and explore new business models. It is an exciting challenge for both Screen Australia and the film and television industry, but one I am sure they will be able to meet.

In particular, I want to emphasise the importance of documentary funding through Screen Australia. As I indicated in the second reading speech, it is the government’s intention that the National Interest Program, currently administered by Film Australia, be strengthened and broadened so that programs of all types which are of special cultural and historical importance can be made. This is not meant to constrain Screen Australia from supporting documentaries through other funding programs where they meet criteria for funding. Indeed, I would hope that the documentary sector as a whole will benefit from stronger resourcing as a result of the creation of Screen Australia.

I am also excited by the potential of the new National Film and Sound Archive to become a national collecting institution of some note and to build on the good work that has been done by archivists there. I know that many people have lobbied hard for the archive to have statutory independence to assist it to be an even more effective institution than it has been to date. In particular, I want to thank Senator Kate Lundy for her ongoing support for the archive, and also the member for Fraser, Bob McMullan. I trust supporters will continue to provide input to the archive’s objectives, priorities and programs.

As I said when introducing this legislation, the archive cannot just be about maintaining and preserving the national collection. It will need to have a high public profile and an outward focus on developing public awareness of and access to the collection, as well as providing support to other less well-resourced collecting bodies around the country. With its new autonomy comes a requirement for greater transparency and accountability. Both the government and the industry will have high expectations of what the archive can achieve. I hope the archive itself will embrace this new role and status and seek to work with all its stakeholders to strengthen and expand its role so that generations to come will see it as a valuable resource and leader in its field. This legislation is important. The government strongly supports a viable and sustainable film industry, an expression of the great cultural vitality of our creative communities and of our nation.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that this bill be reported to the House without amendment.

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