The Howard Governments announcement yesterday that they are prepared to accept Labor’s amendment to the Australia United States Free Trade Agreement, demonstrates just how vulnerable they were on retaining their ability to protect Australia’s local content on free to air television, pay television and radio.
Labor is committed to ensuring that Australians continue to see and hear Australian faces and voices through their popular media. That is why Labor will insist on amendment to the AUSFTA enabling legislation in the Senate to ensure the FTA does not undermine existing local content rules.
In figures released today indicate that Australia’s Film and Television Industry is in crisis, showing a dramatic decline in the number of local feature productions dropping from an average of 28 per year in the second half of the 1990s to just 15 in 2003-4.
Investment in Australian features from the local film/TV industry and private sources has been falling for the past three years, from $45.5 million in 2001/02 to just $17.2 million this year. And without the production of just one high budget feature this year – Happy Feet – the total production value of Australian features would have been similar to 2002/03′s eight year low of $49 million.
Also disturbing is the decrease in TV drama production spending down to its lowest level in 10 years, with Local TV drama hours having fallen from an average of 718 hours per year in the late 1990′s to 574 hours in 2003/04.
These figures are vindication of why Labor has insisted on amendment to the FTA enabling legislation to enshrine local content quotas and ensure that they cannot be ratcheted down under the agreement with the United States.
Labor will also announce a policy package to encourage further investment in Australia’s film and television industry before the next election.
Contact: Adina Cirson – (02) 6277 3334 or 0418 488 295
