George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I won't go further.

An honourable member: Sing it!

I could if you want, but we have only got ten minutes. That theme tune was actually written and composed by an Australian, Ron Grainer.

It is absolutely fantastic that there are so many links between our country and Doctor Who. But it has not stopped there. As is outlined in my motion, there are also plenty of Doctor Who actors who have links to Australia: Janet Fielding, who is an Australian, played an Australian character in the TV show playing opposite both Tom Baker and also, mainly, Peter Davison, who portrayed the Doctor at that time during the 1980s. There is also Katy Manning, who went on to become an Australian citizen. She was married to Barry Crocker, and she played the character Jo Grant back in the 1970s, opposite the Doctor as portrayed by Jon Pertwee. The member for Mitchell told me to add this, and it is an interesting bit of trivia: the Australian horse racing icon and our Melbourne cup winner, Gai Waterhouse, portrayed the character of Presta in the Doctor Who episode 'The Invasion of Time', also in the 1970s opposite Tom Baker. More recently, Australian pop star Kylie Minogue has played the character of Astrid in the new series, opposite the Doctor as portrayed by David Tennant, in the Christmas special 'Voyage of the Dammed'. There is a myriad of connections between this show and our nation. In fact, there is one thing I neglected to mention about Anthony Coburn: not only can he be credited with writing the first story but it is also believed that it was Coburn's idea for the TARDIS to resemble a police box—simply because he saw one in the street outside his office when he was writing the story and thought, what a nifty British institution to put in this show. There are so many connections between Australia and this show, not only behind the scenes but also in the series. Sadly for us—I think it is sometime in the year 200,100 A.D.— we actually get wiped out by the Daleks, so that is something to look forward to in the future!

Seriously, though, all of this culminates in what I think is a good request to the BBC to consider bringing Doctor Who to Australia. In the year 2015 we will mark our 50th anniversary of the show first appearing on Australian screens—15 January 2015. That is an opportune point in history that the BBC could bring Doctor Who down under. Just as they have taken it over to the US, just as they have taken it to many places throughout Europe, they could take Doctor Who to Australia.

There has been some support for that at the very top. In fact, one of the Doctor Who executive producers, Caroline Skinner, was asked about this in London late last year and she said she would consider it, obviously not for the next series but it would be something in the future. She was accompanied by the current Doctor Who, Matt Smith at the time, who said he thought it would be pretty cool to come to Australia and do the filming. Recently there has been an interview with the main man, chief executive producer Steven Moffat, who said, 'Well, maybe we could, maybe not.' Australia is pretty similar to the UK in terms of its settings but I have got to say, imagine the TARDIS landing near the Sydney Opera House, the Sydney Harbour Bridge, in the Australian outback, Uluru, Ayers Rock. Think of all the exotic locations we could have. Canberra is certainly an exotic location for many Australians. But there is a bit of vested electoral interest in that I would hope that if we are able to secure something like that they could bring the TARDIS to the Whitsundays, where we have had experience before in filming major Hollywood motion pictures and also the great Baz Luhrmann film Australia. That is one of my hopes.

In the lead-up to this 50th anniversary of Doctor Who there are so many connections between this show and this nation that I think Doctor Who is as much an Australian institution as it has been a British institution. In the lead-up to this debate there have been lots of MPs who have approached me telling me the same thing over and over, that when they were a kid they used to hide behind the couch and build cushion fortresses to protect themselves from whatever was on the screen, and they loved the show. They remembered it fondly like that. Now with the new series a new generation of children are learning the same thing. It is great to have that show still on the air. It is great to have the Australian connection with it, but I think a greater Australian connection could come if a series were actually filmed down under. I am really hopeful that they will do that. There are precedents for the ABC contributing, and for the 20th anniversary they put some money into it. As the motion states, I would encourage the ABC to consider that, and organisations such as Screen Australia and other film funding and tourism bodies throughout the different states here in Australia. If we can jag this, it will be of immense benefit to both the arts world here in Australia and also tourism.

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