Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in favour of the Screen Australia (Transfer of Assets) Bill 2010. This bill will facilitate the transfer of part of Screen Australia’s film library and associated sales and digital learning function to the National Film and Sound Archive.

The government recognises the importance of film to the Australian identity. That is why in 2009-10 it invested $93.6 million in Screen Australia and $23.7 million in the Australian Film, Television and Radio School. This funding does not include the Producer Offset scheme. Between July 2007 and November 2010, 233 productions received an offset that delivered $252 million in support of the industry—films such as Tomorrow, When the War Began and TV shows such as the popular Underbelly series, which, may I point out, was co-written by my friend and former colleague from the University of Canberra Felicity Packard. Felicity and her husband, Arthur Hill, who works for the ABC, are well known and well loved in Canberra. They are Canberra royalty in some ways, part of an old Canberra family. They are both incredibly talented people and we are proud that they continue to call Canberra home. It is likely that without the work of Screen Australia these culturally significant, popular and successful productions would not have got off the ground.

Screen Australia has also invested in two documentaries produced locally here in Canberra: For Valour and As Australian As. Another, by the name of The Digger: A History, is in the works. For Valour is a documentary for the History Channel that explores the stories of the Australian servicemen commemorated along the Remembrance Driveway for winning the VC, the Victoria Cross, in conflicts from the Boer War to the war in Afghanistan. As Australian As is a 10-part series for the Biography Channel in which eminent Australians amusingly, movingly and provocatively give their thoughts on what it means to be ‘as Australian as’. The feature-length documentary The Digger: A History is also for the History Channel and travels to the battlefields of South Africa, Egypt, the Western Front, New Guinea, Korea and Vietnam telling individual stories and illustrating actions and events that have defined the character and created the reputation of the Australian fighting soldier—the digger. These have all been produced by the local production company Bearcage here in Canberra.

Screen Australia is also responsible for the development of talent within the Australian film and television industry. In the ACT, for instance, Screen Australia and Screen ACT cosponsored Project Pod 2010. The aim of Project Pod is to increase capability and capacity in screen project development and support a group of targeted top projects to a market-ready stage. This support has been well received by the local industry here in the ACT. It is a small industry but a vibrant one, and, with the continued help of Screen Australia, it will continue to thrive and create a new centre for employment in Canberra. As I have said before, we have a very strong animation industry here and, as you can tell from what I have just explained, we also have a very strong film industry and documentary industry.

The Gillard government is not just committed to the development of Australian film and television. It is also committed to preserving and documenting our past—our history—through the work of the National Film and Sound Archive. The National Film and Sound Archive is a Canberra icon and a national icon. It is that fabulous old art deco building just beside the ANU, on the north side in my colleague the member for Fraser’s electorate. It currently holds over 1.6 million works, including film, television and radio programs, audio tapes, CDs, vinyl records, phonograph cylinders and wire recording. It also includes associated artefacts, such as photos and posters, scripts, costumes and vintage equipment.

The work of the archive can be traced back to 1935 with the creation of the national historical film and speaking record library at the National Library, which is in my electorate of Canberra. Over that time, it has changed names and legislative arrangements. However, its current iteration dates back to 2008, when the Labor government delivered on an election promise to de-merge the archive from Screen Australia and establish it as its own statutory authority. The task given to the archive, of preserving the works of Australian filmmakers, is essential in recording the development of an Australian industry, and it is essential in recording the history of our nation and the history of Australian culture. In 2009-10, the government invested $25.2 million in the National Film and Sound Archive to support its work, and it is through this internationally recognised work that we have been able to preserve such films as the 1906 The Story of the Kelly Gang, that infamous film, and—

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

As many in this chamber would know, The Story of the Kelly Gangthat iconic 1906 film—was not just Australia’s first feature-length production but was recognised in 2007 by UNESCO as being the world’s first. Until recently, only about 10 minutes of this film was thought to have survived; however, through the work of the National Film and Sound Archive more film was found and restored, which means the Australian public can now see 17 minutes of the original 60-minute film.

This is just one example of the work done to preserve our rich cultural heritage kept on film. I support this legislation because of the terrific preservation work of the archive. But this is not to disparage the work of Screen Australia and its library. It has become clear since the establishment of these agencies that some functions currently undertaken by Screen Australia would be better placed within the National Film and Sound Archive. I speak mainly of the portion of the Screen Australia library that was produced by Film Australia and its predecessors. The Screen Australia library of film is one of the largest, at approximately 5,000 films and associated material, and one of the most historically significant sources of archival, documentary and stock footage in the country. This bill will also transfer the sales and commercial function that goes with that library, as well as the associated digital-learning function. The sales function relates to the commercial use of the film library’s holdings, while the digital-learning function relates to the online educational resources that use film and stills to provide a rich source of material for learners of all ages, from primary school to university and beyond.

As the National Film and Sound Archive is Australia’s premier and specialist collecting institution, it makes sense that the items I mentioned, currently stored by Screen Australia, should be transferred to it. This transfer will complement and enhance the direction already set by the National Film and Sound Archive to provide greater online content and improve access to its collection of audiovisual materials. It will ensure that this material is preserved and made available to generations to come.

Before I close, I would like to do a plug for the National Archives Shake Your Family Tree Program event tomorrow. It is being done in conjunction with a range of archives, including the National Film and Sound Archive, and it is going to be lots of fun for Canberrans. If their family migrated here in the 20th century, served in the defence forces, or worked for, or had any other dealings with, the Australian government, they can ‘shake their family tree’ and possibly find some of their family history.

There will be a whole day of activities. One that is of particular interest is the unexpected discoveries panel discussion. Peter Cundall, the environmental activist and gardener, who is well known to most of us in this House, journalist James Massola, who used to work with the Canberra Times and is now with the Australian online, and author Jackie French will reveal some of the surprises that were unearthed while researching their own family history. I am sure you have seen the shows on television in which celebrities from the UK and Australia have traced their family histories. It has been absolutely fascinating—disappointing and upsetting at times, but a revelation for them. It has also been very deep and meaningful in giving them a greater sense of identity through unearthing what their family was all about. Some get murderers, some get criminals, some get barons—all sorts of things. It will be interesting to see what comes of that event. I recommend to Canberrans the Shake Your Family Tree event, which is on tomorrow.

I commend the bill to the House.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Canberra and I draw her attention to the relevance provisions in the standing orders.

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Regardless of one’s passions, sometimes there is a degree of reticence in speaking on some bills. Having endured a particularly banal attack on me about a year and a half ago by one of our leading gossip columnists, who parades as a political commentator, for having a passion for foreign film—apparently that is a crime—I nevertheless speak on the Screen Australia (Transfer of Assets) Bill 2010. Both the National Film and Sound Archive and ScreenSound Australia have fulfilled very worthwhile purposes for this country. However, looking at the background notes which describe the various manoeuvrings of those organisations and their history, I am reminded of all the double-crosses that Gabriel Byrne experienced in Joel Coen’s film Miller’s Crossing, because quite a tortuous Byzantine process has led us to these two fine organisations. Obviously there seems to be merit in placing the 5,000 items that ScreenSound Australia has, and also its digital educational role, with the other organisation and consolidating into the one body, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Both organisations have done very good work and they tell us a lot about our history. I was at a recent showing of the preserved film The Last Days of Chez Nous, by Gillian Armstrong. I recall seeing it many years ago, and it really was a film about my period at university et cetera, filmed essentially in Glebe, Sydney. It is good to see that the film is going to be preserved permanently. It certainly is a part of this country’s history. Sydney, inner city life, relationships, a cottage in Glebe: it really is necessary that that kind of thing be preserved. If you look at the reality, 90 per cent of our pre-1930s film is missing. That is a pretty sorry story, but it is not peculiar to Australian film. Occasionally you see very famous German films from the 1920s found in obscure cinemas in New Zealand. It is very worrying that we have not kept this history, but it is great to see some of the work being done. The glass panel at the National Film and Sound Archive was a revolutionary item in film in 1927, when it was utilised in For the Term of His Natural Life, which of course is a major story in this country.

It is also interesting to look at the history. The previous speaker briefly referred to the work done on The Story of the Kelly Gang and the fact that we now have about a third of it. It is interesting to look at that in the context of its social history. When it was shown in 1906 it returned £25,000. Interestingly, the film was banned in Victoria, in Benalla and Wangaratta. It was stated that the showing of that film caused young boys to commit a robbery in Ballarat. It is interesting to look at the impact that the film was seen as having.

As I said, Screen Australia has 5,000 titles that cover everything from royal visits to the migration history of this country—the arrival of people, which is very contemporary, with a recent SBS production—the social life, agriculture, the armed forces and all of those things. It is also actively engaged in international film festivals around the world, trying to promote Australian films, a very difficult process. It is involved in developing production market intelligence and it is gradually putting up Australian biographies on the website, the stories of people who are relevant to our industry—their experiences and the way that they came to the industry.

On the other hand, the National Film and Sound Archive is described as aspiring to be ‘the world’s premier archive of Australian audiovisual and emerging media cultural heritage’. In its last annual report, it notes that it faces the critical challenge of finding adequate storage for the collection. That is obviously important, because the reason we do not have 90 per cent of our pre-1930 material is that the films would have lain around cinemas in Guildford or Prahran and basically, over time, been forgotten about or found to be getting in the way of other things et cetera. So it is interesting that even our national film archive body has challenges in regard to its storage capacity. The NFSA also expresses concern in that same report about the challenges of the collection’s digitisation and accommodation for the material. However, I am pleased to see that it is engaging with Indigenous film and also with ethnic communities in this country so that we make sure that what we do preserve, promote and are actively engaged in is not just what could be seen as mainstream.

Some of the material they hold is of interest on a local level. I am surprised that they have film of 1930s soccer in this country. There is a local facet to that because two of the few areas of soccer’s popularity in New South Wales, besides the mining fields and the Wollongong south coast region—because of British mining migration—were around Granville and Auburn in Sydney. They were two of the few areas where soccer was strong in the 1930s, so it is worth while that we are preserving that period in Australian history, when the teams were essentially run by companies. Metters and Goodyear were basically running the sport in this country.

Another instance of the kind of work they are doing is Captain Thunderbolt , a 1953 production. Because it was not released widely in this country, despite being an Australian production, it reached the stage where it was eventually cut by one-fifth for television, and that part was essentially lost.

The NFSA is an organisation that has, as people have noted, 1.6 million items, composed of over 300,000 audio recordings, over 400,000 moving image recordings and 870 very variegated artefacts and documents. Having noted the operation, over two years, of the separate organisations, there seems to be a sound logic behind making sure that that which is the major archival site for Australian material does in turn receive those other 5,000 items, and that the commercialisation, promotion and, as I said, digital education role does lie with the one organisation. I commend the bill to the House.

Simon Crean (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Regional Australia, Regional Development and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

in reply—It is a pleasure to follow both the member for Canberra and the member for Werriwa—the member for Canberra because she represents the area in which the National Film and Sound Archive is housed and the member for Werriwa because of his love of film and history, and I think we have just heard a reinforcement of that. I was also interested to note the early model of regional censorship, with The Story of the Kelly Gang being banned in Benalla! That is certainly not the intended direction of our regional policy, but it is an interesting historical reflection. We do have a proud tradition in film, and it is important that we record it and house it, catalogue it and utilise it so that people can not only have access to it but also use it as an educative and informative tool. I have had the opportunity to visit the National Film and Sound Archive and they do a great job.

Essentially, this is a simple proposition in the Screen Australia (Transfer of Assets) Bill 2010. It facilitates the transfer of part of Screen Australia’s extensive film library and its associated sales and digital learning functions to the National Film and Sound Archive, so the National Film and Sound Archive will become the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. It will hold a complete and ongoing collection. This transfer from the film library is one of the largest and most historically significant sources of archival, documentary and stock footage in Australia and it will ensure that this valuable resource is preserved and developed into the future. The transfer will also enhance and complement the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia’s new direction, providing greater online content and improving access to its collection of audio and visual materials. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.

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