Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am sorry that I do not have a Tom Baker scarf to present this speech. I am proud to support the member for Dawson's motion. I grew up in country Queensland where we only had the ABC, so Doctor Who was a big part of my life. I guess there is a renaissance of Doctor Who. Most Doctor Who fans can be broken up into the earlier group of doctors and then the later group of doctors. I think the member for Mitchell might be in the later group. I know even my young son likes the new Doctor Who. I see the excitement about the new episode that is coming up and is being televised all around the world I think on Sunday, 24 November at 5.50 am Queensland time. There will be a lot of people staying up all around the world to watch this and there will be live coverage. The ABC will set up a 24-hour-a-day Doctor Who radio station, if you have a digital radio, where Spencer Howson from Brisbane will be one of the experts talking about Doctor Who. There will be 12-hour loops of interviews and discussions with Doctor Who actors and experts. One of my brothers, Nicholas, is a Doctor Who tragic. He knows all about the new episode and I am sure he will be switching on to it.

As the member for Dawson pointed out, there are many connections with Australia. I will not repeat the ones in the motion and already mentioned by the member for Dawson but I touch on some other ones. The Australian actor Robert Jewell played the Chief Dalek in the 1960s before playing a cameo as Bing Crosby in the series 'The Daleks' Master Plan'. His daughter Sandy now lives in Chermside in Brisbane. The member for Dawson did mention one of our very talented exports, the actor Janet Fielding, who played an Australian character, Tegan Jovanka, alongside the doctor. I am going to quote from one amusing scene that someone from North Queensland might take an interest in where Janet Fielding asks about the zero room where the doctor goes to regenerate. Tegan says, 'What is a zero room anyway? The doctor said something about null interfaces.' Nyssa responds, 'I suppose it is some sort of neutral environment, an isolated place cut off from the rest of the universe.' Tegan replies, 'He should have told me. If that is what he wanted, I could have shown him Brisbane.' That is a slur on the city I represent but quite amusing.

My earliest memories of Doctor Who, which started a year before I was born, are of being scared despite the dodgy special effects and dodgy costumes, props and sets. I do remember being scared by it. Even though it is a very British show with the London police box the TARDIS, its messages are obviously universal. I was interested to hear the member for Dawson say that it started off as an educational show. It is a British show but with universal messages. I want to refer to one particular episode, called 'The Green Death', and, just in case the member for Melbourne is listening, this is not linked to the 44th Parliament. It is actually about an oil refinery that ignores basic environmental practices and causes the deaths of a few miners and creates a new disease that is transferred by giant killer maggots, which then become a threat to humanity. The super computer mastermind behind the whole thing is linked to a bunch of corporations with significant capital sunk into the project and therefore with a lot of self-interest. Fortunately, leaders in our society today are much wiser and they would not stick their heads in the sand when Earth was worried about significant threats to the safety of the environment and the human race. Obviously, the doctor saved the day then and, hopefully, that will continue to be the case as humanity works out the right thing to do. The member for Dawson outlined the many Australians involved in the production of the Dr Who series—and he capably indicated the Dr Who theme—and it is telling that the member for Dawson has asked for the production to move to Australia, particularly to Queensland.

We do have a fine history of making films in Queensland, particularly in North Queensland. I will not mention the film made near my wife's home town of Babinda, called Turkey Shoot, because that would not be appropriate, but there are great films like The Thin Red Line and The Pacific, all filmed in North Queensland. I mention them because they are classic American stories told in Australia. They are American stories with Australian talent—Australian cinematographers and Australian production crews help to tell those stories. I think the member for Dawson touched on the call for the ABC to support the production of Dr Who coming here, because I think it is essential that we be able to tell Australian stories. We are such a small audience in terms of global consumers of media, but we have to have our skills used to tell other stories. It could be telling a British story like Dr Who; it could even be an Australian director like Baz Luhrmann telling a quintessential American story like The Great Gatsby, but it is still called an Australian story. It is only when we look after and nurture the talents like people like Baz Luhrmann and those who shoot a great film like The Great Gatsbythat we can then tell those other Australian stories—and not just stories that can only be told in Australia like Ten Canoes or Samson and Delilahbut those other stories that reflect the modern Australia. I am thinking of a movie like The Rocket, set in Laos, telling a Laotian story with Australian talent helping to tell that story. It is essential that we fight the rest of the world to have their productions filmed here—not for a few cultural crumbs thrown our way by Britain or America, but because we will be able to tell our stories with the skills from major overseas productions. The reality is a high Australian dollar, and it is a horrible factor for Australian film companies. We now have studios and equipment being shipped off to Taiwan and South Africa. Screen Australia is doing what it can to show our expertise. We still win Oscars because of our expertise, but the reality is that we are competing with other countries that give offsets that we cannot compete with. I am saying this to the current government as much as I said it to the governments of the 43rd and 42nd parliaments. The reality is that we need to have greater incentives to come here. There is no point in saying that we will have the producers' offsets if we do not have productions taking place in Australia. I know that Australian cinematographers, production assistants, script writers and musicians can hold it with the rest of the world, but if there is not enough incentive for them to work here they will go overseas. They will win Oscars for other countries' stories being told with Australian talent. That is the reality.

I fully support the call from the member for Dawson. This seems like a perfect opportunity for cloud funding for a production of Dr Who. There would not be any conflict of interest. I am sure I would not have to go to the member for Dawson's electorate and buy an investment property. We could just fund this; we could start the process by calling them to come to Australia. Australia has the oldest, continuous culture and civilisation in the world and so what better place for a Time Lord to come to? Here we can combine the old with the new. Australia is that classic country for Dr Who. We are the driest continent, so there are the challenges of climate change, but we also have other great settings. I can imagine the TARDIS landing in front of the Sydney Opera House and other iconic places around the Great Barrier Reef. I can imagine Dr Who coming up with a story that combines the past with the future—which he does so often. It is the classic narrative device that works so well with Dr Who: he puts up a mirror to where we are now by looking at where we were and where we will be. It is a good device for all of humanity. I commend the member for Dawson for bringing this motion to the chamber.

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