Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The second objective of this bill, the Treasury Laws Amendment (Delivering Better Financial Outcomes and Other Measures) Bill 2024, is to establish a tax offset—it's called the location tax offset—to encourage foreign and overseas film companies to come to Australia and to make their films here. We need this as part of our film industry ecosystem. But what I am concerned about, and what the government are clearly avoiding by rushing this bill through today without considering other amendments, is that, while they're giving a handout to Hollywood, they have done nothing to help local Australian film producers and creators right here domestically.

The government promised at the last election that they would introduce legislation to regulate the big streaming companies like Netflix and Amazon to ensure that they are required to make Australian films and Australian content and tell Australian stories on their platforms, as free-to-air broadcasters have been required to do for quite some time. This is a local content quota: regulation that helps to ensure that Australian stories are able to be seen, heard and easily found on these big streaming giants. The government promised that they would bring in this legislation and that it would be in place by 1 July 2024. That was three days ago. We've missed that deadline. The government have broken their promise—they've rolled over and kowtowed to the big streaming giants; they're letting Netflix write the rules—and instead we have a tax offset for Hollywood, bundled up in a bill with all these other things that are not related to the film industry.

The government talk a big game on the arts, on the creative industries and on backing Australian stories, but they are failing dismally. Why? It's because they couldn't even work out in their own ministry who would have responsibility for this piece of legislation. We don't know whether it's Minister Burke or Minister Rowland. Every time we're in Senate estimates and we say, 'Where is this bill up to?' there's always confusion as to who's in charge. It's just not good enough. You promised to have regulation on these big streaming giants done and in place by 1 July 2024, and we still don't even have the legislation. We still don't even know what is going to be in the legislation or what model the government will use. But we do know that Netflix, Amazon and the big American streaming giants are all getting warmed up. They're ready to tear down any moves to regulate them.

Australians have a proud history of telling our own stories and having them shown on screen, celebrating our own history and making good-quality Australian children's content. But it is all being consumed and cannibalised by the American screen industry and the big streaming giants. Rather than standing up to America, what we see is this government folding. We were meant to have this legislation done and started by 1 July, and we still don't even have a draft of legislation. It's just not good enough. When the government decide to finally get their act together after the Americans have pulled it all apart, we will have quite a debate in this chamber about whether it's good enough—because just skipping to the tune of the Americans is not going to cut it. We need to be backing our creative industries here in Australia and be proud of our Australian stories.

The size of the contribution that the Australian screen industry and our creative industries make to the Australian economy is extraordinary, yet time and time again they get shunted off the priority list by the government. In other countries, like Canada, the EU and the UK, governments have decided, rather than allowing the creativity of their domestic industries to be cannibalised by America, to stand up for them and put in place regulation. Here we have the government breaking a promise, leaving the industry in limbo and, all the while, saying, 'It's all too hard to do because America doesn't like it.' We should not be dictated to by what the American companies or the American administration would like. This is our culture. They are our stories. They are our workers. They are our creative talent—and we should be backing them in.

It seems that over and over again the Labor Party talk a big game on standing up to the big corporations, but, when they're forced to make a decision, they crumble. That's what we've seen happen again. This location tax offset will help some here in Australia, and that is good. But, most of all, it is helping Hollywood and the American companies. Meanwhile, our domestic industry is left waiting, with promise after promise being broken. The government is dragging the chain, and our industry is being told to wait. The only people who are really cheering now that 1 July has passed without legislation and regulation are Netflix, Amazon and the big US global giants. The ministers need to do better.