Virginia 
Judge told Encore that she wants to raise her concerns about the Producer Offset with Minister for Environment, Heritage and the Arts, Peter Garrett – particularly those around the incentive’s $1m threshold.
“I want to have that re-examined. I want to know why we’re not getting more feature films and documentaries made. I want to have a look at that whole offset because I want to make sure that everyone can have a slice of that cake, not just the over $1m productions,” she said.
“That’s something I’ll be flagging with Minister Garrett when I get the opportunity.”
Questioned about the investment made by New South Wales to support the production of George Miller and Doug Mitchell’s Happy Feet 2, Judge said she could not disclose any details about the package, due to commercial confidentiality reasons, as well as the ongoing competition between Australian states for film development and production/post-production.
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Miller said at today’s Happy Feet announcement that NSW and Australia had been ‘lazy’ for a long time, but praised current production attraction and support initiatives. Judge said that it is all part of the state’s commitment to the screen industry.
“NSW is certainly open for business, we put an extra $5m into the state’s production leverage fund; we helped do the film-friendly protocol with the councils; we’ve got Screen NSW, a one-stop-shop solution; and initiatives like [script development program] Aurora. All of these things are hugely important,” said Judge.