Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Screen Australia Bill 2008, the National Film and Sound Archive Bill 2008 and the Screen Australia and the National Film and Sound Archive (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Bill 2008. The coalition will be supporting these bills because the legislation is effectively a mirror image of the bill that Senator Brandis put before the Australian public last September. The government, very wisely in my view, has adopted the approach that was set out in that bill and we therefore commend the government for its wisdom in this one area, and one area alone; there are a couple of areas where I will not be praising the government.

It is important that these bills proceed quickly and it is worth while paying tribute to those that have carried out work to bring about major reforms in the film sector. I examined the second reading speech and debates in the other place and I came to the conclusion that some of the speakers may not have been fully aware of the history in getting to this position and were not aware of the amount of work that was done so that these major reforms could be carried out. I particularly pay tribute to my colleagues, the former Treasurer, the former Minister for Finance and Administration and, of course, the former Prime Minister, who allowed me as the arts minister to initiate a major review into the film sector that was announced in the 2006 budget.