Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I also rise to support this legislation, because we should be doing all we can to support creative industries like film, television and computer games in Australia, and the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008 is part of that effort. The bill amends the Classifications (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995 to: replace the prohibition on advertising unclassified films and computer games with a new scheme that will allow advertising subject to conditions to be set out in a new Commonwealth instrument, to which schedule 1 of the bill refers; and amend the classification procedures for films that are compilations of episodes of a television series so that an application for classification of such a film may be accompanied by a report by an authorised assessor. This is in schedule 2 of the bill.

This bill, together with changes being introduced by the state and territory governments, responds to industry concerns about marketing imperatives and will streamline the classification process and reduce the regulatory burden. As the member for Moreton rightly pointed out, we are living in a new age. We are living in a technologically advanced age and there are new technologies coming into play. Families have the opportunity to see things through the computer and also the film industry, which creates tremendous opportunities for growing employment and growing the economy but also means that we need to continue to update the regulatory environment for our film, television and computer games industries. Today I am particularly speaking in support of this bill because I think that, if we are going to support business in this area, then we need to make sure that the regulatory environment, the government environment within which they operate, is working effectively.

The creative industries are growing in tropical North Queensland, and I am a very keen supporter of their continued growth and development. People may not know this, but the tropical north has grown in popularity as a film production destination, with numerous feature films being shot in the region. Notable films include The Island of Dr Moreau, The Thin Red Line and Escape from Absalom. As recently as August 2007, The Pacific was shot in Mossman. It included prominent movie stars such as Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Fool’s Gold was shot in Port Douglas during 2006-07, and it also had a sizeable budget and high-profile actors and crew. In fact, more big-budget Hollywood films have used tropical North Queensland for location shooting than any other place in Australia—more than the Gold Coast, more than Sydney and more than Melbourne. In tropical North Queensland, we in fact shoot more big-budget Hollywood films and other big-budget films than anywhere else in Australia.

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