Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The film and television industry is a very important employer in my electorate of Sydney. There have been changes recently and a perceived lack of support, or diminished support, from the federal government that have greatly worried the people in my electorate who work in the film industry or are associated with it. The US feature film Unbroken spent $66 million in Australia, employing 3,141 cast and crew and engaging, in addition, 12,088 businesses. In my electorate itself, the film employed 717 of my constituents and engaged 155 of my local businesses. That gives an idea of the scale of economic benefit that can be brought to Australia by a thriving film and television industry. When Wolverine was filmed in Sydney I visited the set. It was a real treat to see people hard at work on this international blockbuster. There were 406 cast and crew and 226 vendors from my electorate specifically engaged in Wolverine. We see the growth of fantastic Australian companies like Animal Logic, which did the digital animation for The Lego Movie. Again, I was very fortunate to be able to visit Animal Logic when they were working on The Lego Movie. It won 65 awards and was nominated for another 57 awards, including a BAFTA for best animated film in 2015. Animal Logic was a tiny local company established in 1991 with 10 people. It now employs 500 people in Sydney and in Los Angeles.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics suggested that in the 2011-12 financial year there were 15,670 people employed in production and post-production services in Australia. In the 2013-14 year, a record year for drama production in Australia, there was $837 million of production expenditure and a further $43 million earned from projects that were shot elsewhere but came to Australia for post-production and digital visual effects work—films like the second SpongeBob SquarePants movie, where most of the work was done overseas but the live animation work was done in Australia. Of the $837 million that I mentioned was spent, approximately 65 per cent was foreign investment in Australia in Australian and foreign projects. The most recent film, Mad Max: Fury Road has been the most successful Australian feature film this year, taking over $510 million at the box office. We do great work in film and television production, and we need to make sure that federal support is there. (Time expired)