Screen Agency defends role as producer offset administrator
The national screen agency Screen Australia has defended its role in administering an Australian film tax rebate, following accusations it was not fit to do so by the Screen Producers Association of Australia.
The response comes after Wednesday’s Federal Court decision which found that production Lush House, a ten-part series by Essential Media and Entertainment was a documentary and available to access tax rebate, the producer offset.
The film agency argued the case, initially at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal and to the Federal Court, that the series was infotainment and therefore not eligible for the lucrative offset.
In a statement, Screen Australia said, since 2008 the agency “has decided 252 applications for final Producer Offset certificates in respect of programs which sought certification as documentaries (and which would not be eligible for the Producer Offset on any other basis). Of these 252 applications, Screen Australia has approved the issue of 248 final certificates, representing a total Offset amount of $44,266,140.
Lush House was one of four programs which were refused certification on the ground that the program was not a documentary.
The statement continued: “Regardless of the definition of documentary adopted, there will always be some programs which are at the margins, and which challenge classification as documentary. It is, and has always been, Screen Australia’s intention to make decisions about these programs in good faith, reasonably and in accordance with law.”
Screen Australia said the aim of taking the case to court was in order to bring clarity to the concept of the documentary. The agency helped pay for Essential Media and Entertainment’s court costs as a sign of good faith.
The court found that the term ‘documentary’ as used in the Producer Offset legislation is uncertain, ambiguous and obscure.
The statement from the agency continued: “Screen Australia will carefully review the reasons of the Court and their impact on decision-making going forward. It does not intend to pursue any avenue of appeal. As was made clear at the recent Australian International Documentary Conference session on ‘Defining Documentary’, Screen Australia welcomes industry debate on important questions such as those raised by the Lush House matter.”
Recently the topic what constitutes a documentary was debated at the Australian International Documentary Conference.
