Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

I can advise colleagues that the government recently launched a new program to attract international productions to Australia, called the location incentive. The purpose of this investment is to sustain Australian jobs in the film production sector and supporting industries through a competitive incentive program to ensure that there's a steady pipeline of international production. These productions will support the direct employment of over 3,000 Australian cast and crew and use the services of around 6,000 Australian businesses each year. The program was announced as part of the budget and opened for applications on 7 August. It is a competitive grant program that seeks the best deals for Australia. I'm pleased to acknowledge that it was welcomed by the opposition at the time of the budget.

Successful applicants need to demonstrate contributions to the broader economy. I'm very pleased that the government has announced the awarding of the two grants under the new location incentive program to attract international feature films to Australia. The government is committing $16 million in additional funding to secure two new productions for Australia: Godzilla vs. Kong, which is a feature film by Legendary Entertainment, and Reef Break, a 13-episode series by Disney/ABC International Television. This support will generate hundreds of jobs for the screen industry supply chain and bring investment of more than $100 million to the Australian economy. This is a very practical way that we are supporting small business in Australia, and we're able to this only because of good budget management. (Time expired)