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

I am pleased to speak in support of the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008. The laws relating to how we classify or rate media are important for allowing consumers to make informed choices about what they see and hear, and they are important for protecting children and young people from viewing inappropriate material. The laws also provide a degree of regulation for a highly competitive industry. It is certainly amazing how much things have changed since when I was a kid. If I wanted to research a topic in primary school, I would have to jump on my bike, go down to the library in a small country town, see if the books were in and, if the books were not in, wait a couple of weeks for them to come in from another country town—whereas, nowadays, a 10- or 12-year-old boy can look up porn from all over the world very quickly. That is the change that the World Wide Web has made in terms of accessing information.

The National Classification Scheme classifies films, including video, DVDs, computer games and some publications. State and territory governments also have classification legislation in place to enforce the scheme. This bill will put in place a scheme to allow unclassified computer games to be advertised before they are classified. Of course, this is subject to various conditions.

The bill also streamlines the classification process for films that are one or more episodes of a television series broadcast in Australia. Under the National Classification Scheme, films and computer games cannot legally be advertised until classified. However, under the advertising exemption scheme a limited number of exemptions can be granted. There is a set quota of 110 exemptions each year. These apply to major cinema releases where the film has not yet been completed, and therefore cannot be classified, when advertising begins. I am sure we have all sat in cinemas and seen the ads saying, ‘This film has not yet been classified.’

Last year the classification scheme reviewed more than 800 computer games. Currently computer games cannot carry advertisements for games that have not yet been classified. The computer game industry, I will inform those people who are over 18, is a very big industry in Australia. In fact, last year the computer games industry out-profited the cinema industry. It is not an area that I have been into, but at each shopping centre you go to now you see shops that are full of computer games. So this measure is similar to cinema’s in that it lets people buy a game before it has been classified by the Office of Film and Literature Classification. With this new industry it is very appropriate that such a huge number of consumers should be afforded the same promotional tools that are available to cinema. I point out that Australia is actually leading the way in a lot of computer games. We have a computer game industry, especially in Brisbane, that is taking on the rest of the world. So, anything we can do to help it, such as treating it the same as cinema, is good.

There is self-regulation of the industry, which improves efficiency and lowers the regulatory burden for distributors. So this bill is a step in the direction of eliminating some of that red tape. I commend the former government, and the current Rudd government, for having taken steps in that direction.

An authorised assessment scheme will be in place for distributors to assess their games prior to classification by the board. Assessors are trained annually in a course approved by the Director of the Classification Board. Distributors are therefore able to assess their computer games for advertising and they must ensure they are advertised with games of the same rating. For example, PG games can only be advertised with PG games or higher. So, if parents and kids are in a shop, they will know that they will only be looking at similar sorts of games. But the safeguard for all Australians ensures that the final classification still lies with the board. I stress that, as it is very important: the Australian government still has the final say. The assessors at the Office of Film and Literature Classification still make the final decision based on what is in the game. There is currently a high level of consumer confidence in the film self-assessment scheme, so there is no reason why this will not work for computer games also.

The classification scheme is a very effective one. All films are classified within 20 days of lodgement with the board. With more than 8,500 films and DVDs, and 800 computer games, reviewed every year this is an incredible workload. One of my brothers works at the Office of Film and Literature Classification and it has been amazing over the years to listen to the stories of what they have to sit through. Unfortunately many of those 8,500 films are pornographic, and it is apparently incredibly mind-numbingly boring to watch porn all day or, even worse, to watch sitcoms all day, going all the way through, or, likewise, to go through all the different levels of computer games to make sure there is nothing inappropriate. Obviously, with young, impressionable minds playing these games or watching these films, it is important that the state plays a role in making sure that the classification is appropriate. Having had a sibling that works in this area, I commend the work of all of those at the Office of Film and Literature Classification.

I am also pleased that this bill will prohibit films that are likely to be classified PG or higher being advertised to an audience for a G film. Basically, if you go along to a G-rated movie you will not be seeing ads for a PG film. Under current measures, films granted advertising exemption that are likely to be classified PG can be advertised together with a G film. This bill ensures that only films likely to be classified G can be advertised to an audience for a G film.

This is particularly important for me as the father of an almost-three-year-old. When we went to see Bee Movie this year, we saw PG ads which contained completely different concepts, and they certainly freaked out my child. I had to calm him down for Bee Movie. The bill means that parents who take their children to G movies can be comfortable knowing that the cinema will not be showing inappropriate advertisements. This is a great relief for parents I know that try to be gatekeepers of what their children see. This bill ensures parents can make informed choices about what their children see at the cinema, both in the ads before the movie and obviously in the movie. It gives parents greater confidence that young children will not be inadvertently exposed to unsuitable material.

This bill strikes a good balance. It will reduce the regulatory burden on industry while ensuring ongoing consumer confidence, so there will still be the stopgaps of making sure that nothing will be classified inappropriately but the bill will also make sure that it is a quick process. It is yet another step in the Rudd government’s approach to getting rid of red tape. I commend the bill to the House.

Jim Turnour (Leichhardt, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Honourable Members:

Honourable members interjecting—

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

I notice that the members here today are surprised by that, and that is part of the reason I have risen to speak on this bill. We are a growing area of international film, and we need to be recognised as such, because we do that despite having no studio infrastructure of any kind. There is studio infrastructure in Melbourne, in Sydney and on the Gold Coast, but there is no studio infrastructure in tropical North Queensland, in Cairns or Port Douglas. But movie stars and directors continue to come to our part of the world because of the great environment that we provide them. These films come to tropical North Queensland even though, as I have said, they cannot do postproduction activities there. These are done in other locations because of the lack of sound stages and production infrastructure.

There are tremendous opportunities to continue to grow the film industry in the tropical north. Location filming in Australia continues to increase every year, with extended projects now appearing from India, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia. China also seem poised to increase their overseas filming in the next several years. Not only do we have the film industry; we also have television shows, including Survivor, which have selected tropical North Queensland as a place to shoot local productions.

It is a huge industry in the tropical north, and it is a huge industry in Australia. Tackling regulation is extremely important, and that is what this bill is about. I understand that the film and television industry in Australia is valued at $1.5 billion annually to the GDP and employs more than 5,000 people, so it is a significant employer nationally. It is a growing area, and it is a significant employer in my electorate of Leichhardt, in tropical North Queensland.

Why do producers come and choose tropical North Queensland? I noticed that members present were very interested in the fact that we produce so many large films in the tropical north. There are some key selling features of the region for premier films. We have a broad choice of diverse exteriors. Anybody who has flown into Cairns over the cane fields and over the Barron River and then looked up into the wet tropical rainforest understands the beautiful environment which we have. It gives us an internationally competitive advantage, and it is part of the reason that people come to Cairns and Port Douglas to shoot films. I believe there is nowhere else in the world in a First World country where you can find an environment with beautiful golden beaches sweeping into palm trees or cane fields but you can also go to places where they directly run into rainforest environments. You can go from a beach to an urban environment, from a beach to a palmy tropical environment, from a beach to an agricultural environment and from a beach to a tropical rainforest—an unbelievable place to come and shoot a film. That is why so many big blockbuster films are coming to tropical North Queensland, even though we do not have the infrastructure to do the postproduction work.

We also have fantastic accommodation. You can come to Cairns or Port Douglas. Movie stars and directors like Hanks and Spielberg want to come and stay somewhere first class, and coming to the Marina Mirage, where Bill Clinton and other political leaders, as well as movie stars, come to holiday is also a big attraction for a cast and crew coming to our part of the world. You can bring in large numbers of people, which are needed in the production of television and movies, and allow them to be housed in first-rate accommodation facilities either in Cairns or in Port Douglas.

The film industry and the television industry are increasingly becoming international. When producers from Hollywood, Britain, America, China or India are looking around the world for where they want to produce their films, they are also looking to issues of safety and the infrastructure that is in place. Having in Australia—not only in Cairns but in other parts of Australia—that sort of First World environment is also very important in the decision making that builds on our natural environment.

We have an international airport in Cairns that is the sixth busiest in Australia for passenger numbers, ensuring production teams are in close proximity to their shooting locations. A number of small carriers offer charter services throughout the region. You can also charter out of Cairns into the dry tropics of Cape York Peninsula, into the unique cultural environment of the Torres Strait. So there are tremendous variations of location and tremendous opportunities to actually get out and explore new and different film locations.

We have communication technology, happily, I would say, improving under the current government, with our new national fibre-to-the-node broadband network. I am looking forward to that being rolled out. The fibre increasingly being laid down is important to the creative industries and continuing to grow the creative industries, whether that is film, television, computer games or a range of other areas. Making sure that we have First World telecommunications infrastructure is critical to us continuing to grow and support these industries.

There is great community support for, and welcoming of, new industries and investment in Cairns and tropical North Queensland. The local film industry established the Film and Television Association (FNQ) Inc. in 1998. Membership consists of documentary and television producers, underwater and marine services, stunt coordinators, directors of photography and so on. There is political stability, as we know, in the First World in terms of some of those issues that I talked about earlier on, but there is a tremendous desire to continue to grow and prosper in terms of this industry into the future.

There are numerous recreational opportunities for people that are visiting. There is a bit of down time, often, in shooting films. They can get out to the Great Barrier Reef or explore our great rainforest or the wilderness areas in Cape York Peninsula. They can experience great Indigenous culture, whether that is in the Torres Strait or in Cape York. So it gives us competitive advantage, and that is why film and TV producers are coming to Cairns, are coming to tropical North Queensland, to produce their films—even though, as I have said before, we do not have the infrastructure of the Gold Coast, Melbourne or Sydney. We do not have that infrastructure but they choose us and they come here because of the great locations, the great accommodation and the great people that we have living in Cairns, Port Douglas and the entire tropical North Queensland region.

Global film and television production is a multibillion-dollar industry. It is also one of the world’s fastest growing. The tropical north, as I have said, has distinct competitive advantages and has also demonstrated its ability to attract big blockbuster films. I see tremendous potential to continue to grow the film, television, sound recording and other creative industries in the tropical north and I look forward to working with local industry players to undertake this work. There is a need to build new infrastructure that would enable postproduction work to be undertaken in the tropical north. I certainly want to put this on the agenda of groups like Advance Cairns, which is our peak economic development agency, and encourage developers and other local businesspeople to look at how they can invest and grow in this very important industry in the tropical north.

The creative industries, as I said earlier, nationally produce $1.5 billion and employ over 5,000 people. This is a great opportunity for us to grow an industry that will ensure that we have high-skill, high-paying jobs into the future. If we want to grow and ensure that we have these high-technology creative industries then we need to ensure that the regulatory and government environment in which they operate is efficient and effective and allows business to do their work effectively. That is what this bill deals with. It will reduce regulation. Industry welcomes it. It is part of federal Labor’s plan to continue to grow the economy and strengthen the economy. If we are to grow and strengthen the economy we need to do regulatory reform. We need to continue to make sure government works effectively not only at the federal level but at each of the state and territory levels. COAG has an important part in that in dealing across a whole range of different areas in health and education to make those changes, but the film industry will also benefit from the changes that we are making here in federal parliament and from the supportive changes that are being made by our state and territory colleagues. I commend the bill to the House.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities and Children's Services) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Amendment (Assessments and Advertising) Bill 2008 amends the Classification (Publications, Films and Computer Games) Act 1995. These amendments will achieve two important policy initiatives. They will reform the rules around advertising unclassified material and they will change the classification procedures for box sets of episodes of television series broadcast in Australia.

Together with the amendments to the state and territory classification enforcement legislation, this bill will replace the prohibition on advertising unclassified films and computer games with a new scheme which will allow advertising, subject to conditions that will be set out in a new Commonwealth instrument.

The reforms to the existing prohibition on advertising unclassified films and computer games will reform the inequitable exceptions applied to cinema release films and will implement an agreement by the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General (Censorship). The censorship ministers’ agreement followed consultation with relevant industry stakeholders and members of the general public. In fact, this consultation included the release of a public discussion paper on the advertising scheme.

The bill will also amend the classification procedures for films which are compilations of episodes of a television series so that an application of such a film will be accompanied by an assessment report that complies with conditions set out in the new Commonwealth instrument.

The bill will include a new requirement that at least one of the episodes in the box set has already been broadcast in Australia. This recognises the reality that not all series that are released for sale are broadcast in full in Australia. It also responds to the practicalities of the marketplace, allowing distributors to obtain a classification while the series is still running on television so that it can be released for sale during or at the end of the broadcast season.

Both of these initiatives are aimed at ensuring that the legitimate producers and distributors of films and box-series television shows can gain rights to the property that they produce. The current system, because of its cumbersome nature, actually prevents legitimate producers and, therefore, all the actors and people involved in these shows, from enjoying the benefits of their work. The current system creates an environment whereby video piracy and other forms of opportunistic behaviour can diminish the value of this important market.

Both of these initiatives are also aimed at limiting the regulatory burden or the cost to industry but still include significant safeguards to maintain the integrity of the classification system. We will seek consistency of advice for consumers and protection of minors from harmful material. While the industry will be encouraged to use self-regulation to allow greater advertising opportunities, the assessors from industry, using either scheme, will have to be both appropriately trained and authorised by a director of the board. The schemes enable the director to impose sanctions for the unacceptable use of schemes, including revoking or suspending an assessor’s status or, in extreme cases, even barring a person from using the scheme for periods of up to three years. So the consequences of self-regulation, if they do not work, are very significant.

The details of the reforms will be contained in legislative instruments rather than in this bill to ensure that those aspects of the National Classification Scheme remain both flexible and responsive.

I believe that the reforms that this bill will achieve are sensible, important and will result in a more streamlined classification system, and I commend the bill to the Committee.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

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