Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I move the government amendment on sheet ZA122:

(1)—Schedule 1, item 14, page 6 (lines 7 to 11), omit subsection 376-150(3), substitute:

(3) Expenditure incurred by the company to acquire copyright, or a licence in relation to copyright, is covered by item 2 of the table in subsection (1) only to the extent to which it does not exceed:

(a) in relation to a *tax offset under this Division for the 2021-22 or 2022-23 income year:

(i) if the *film is a *documentary—50% of the total of all the company's *production expenditure on the film; or

(ii) otherwise—30% of the total of all the company's production expenditure on the film; or

(b) in relation to a tax offset under this Division for a later income year—30% of the total of all the company's production expenditure on the film.

This amendment increases the copyright cap for documentaries from 30 per cent to 50 per cent of qualifying Australian production expenditure for two years, from 1 July 2021. The bill containing reforms to the Australian screen production incentive was referred to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee. The committee delivered its report on 31 August and recommended that the copyright cap, a measure that limits the amount of Australian held copyright that can be claimed under the offset, be set at an initial rate of 50 per cent instead of the proposed 30 per cent, in order to monitor the initial impact on the sector.

This change will increase payments by an estimated $1.3 million over the forward estimates. A copyright cap of 50 per cent remains consistent with the policy intent of encouraging the creation of new content. Accepting the committee's recommendation of a 50 per cent copyright cap on documentary productions for two years is consistent with the aim of the broader reforms. It will also provide the sector with an appropriate adjustment period. This change will alleviate concerns around the impact of the changes—in particular, for documentary-makers.

Based on historical data, it's expected that all documentary productions either will benefit from the change to the cap by being able to claim up to 50 per cent of their copyright costs instead of 30 per cent or will not be impacted at all. Additional funding, as mentioned by Senator Davey, has been allocated to Screen Australia, and setting the copyright cap for documentary productions to 50 per cent for two years will give the documentary sector more time to adjust to the broader reforms. The government will continue to monitor the impacts of its policy settings on the screen production sector.