"We're pleased with the review": SPAA
The president of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, Antony Ginnane, says the industry body is “pleased” with the review of the independent screen production sector, but they don’t expect any additional direct financing in the upcoming budget.
“We’re pleased to see that, on many issues, the review doesn’t take a position one way or another. It gives us an opportunity now to engage on an ongoing basis with the Department, but given the state of the world, Australia and the budget, it would be unrealistic for the industry to expect any significant additional direct financing in the upcoming budget,” Ginnane told Encore.
“We’re pleased that Minister Simon Crean and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet have provided us with a current Polaroid of the state of the industry; it’s good to have a compendium of up-to-date information that gives us a sense into their feeling on a number of key issues, such as the Producer/Distributor Fund versus additional funding for Screen Australia in the medium-budget sector, the threshold of the Producer Offset, the Ausfilm-driven push for the Location/PDV offsets to be increased, or the possibility of making the television offset equivalent to the 40 percent for feature films.”
According to Ginnane, some of the “big issues” were left open, although other SPAA recommendations – such as the Producer Offset certification process being moved to the Department – have effectively been closed.
“We would have liked the review to be more definitive on some of the things that were left open, yes, but we have a new Minister who’s been under a lot of pressure from some of the other aspects of his portfolio. The big picture is that SPAA is encouraged by the review and appreciates the open-mindedness of the Department and the Minister on these key issues,” he said.
Ginnane believes the review’s findings show that the Minister and the Department have a clear direction of where they intend to go.
“These issues have been put on the table, and the points of view are generally concurring and contrasting on some of our key points. We’re very encouraged by that, particularly the PDF matter, because the Department is keen to increase commercial sustainability and encourage private investment,” explained Ginnane.
The review doesn’t mean that changes – if they were to happen – will take place immediately.
“Anything that involves legislation always takes time. At the moment, the way the parliament is constituted makes it even more complicated. We have managed to maintain a pretty bipartisan interest for the industry over the last 40 years, although some areas such as the Producer/Distributor Fund remain a Liberal policy. It would only take a focus by Labor on that issue, for example, to reach an agreement.
“But agreement or not, with the financial reality of the Australian Government, we’re afraid we’ll have to look into 2012 before we see any significant movement. We’ll continue to press and there is always an opportunity time frame, but it’s a tough time for Australia right now and frankly, film, television and culture are important, but things that need to happen in Queensland and, to a lesser extent Victoria and Western Australia are more important,” said Ginnane.
SPAA will release a more extensive comment on the review after its next board meeting on February 23.
