Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications and Cyber Security) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) video games are a large and growing market—Australians spent $3.6 billion on games in 2019, more than double the amount they spent in 2012;

(b) video gaming is a mainstream activity—two thirds of Australians play video games with an average age of 37; and

(c) globally, the video game industry generates more than double the revenue of the music and film industries combined; and

(2) recognises that:

(a) Australia is home to a talented community of game developers and publishers, but proportionately the Australian industry is much smaller than its peers in New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom;

(b) video game development provides remote working opportunities and jobs for the regions—in the UK, 55 per cent of video game industry employment is outside of London and the south-east;

(c) the video game industry provides a variety of jobs—in Australia, 34 per cent are software programmers, 19 per cent are artists and 11 per cent are business or marketing professionals;

(d) the skills developed in our domestic video game industry are transferrable into roles in adjacent innovative and growth industries like cyber security, software engineering and data analytics; and

(e) video games could help drive the post-COVID economic recovery in Australia, creating jobs and expanding a significant export market.

I'm pleased to move this motion in support of a high-skill, high-wage, high-growth industry that needs to be taken more seriously here in Canberra. Globally, this is an industry that has generated $250 billion worth of revenue in 2019. That is more than double the revenue generated by the global film and music industries combined. But here in this place, it's an industry that is often overlooked. Research from the Interactive Gaming and Entertainment Association, the industry peak body, shows that income generated by Australian games studios in 2019-20 totalled just $184.6 million. But this is potentially a billion-dollar industry for Australia and a source of jobs with skills that are transferrable into other high-wage, high-growth industries, like cybersecurity and software development. It could be a huge source of jobs growth and direct foreign investment into Australia as we begin our post-pandemic economic recovery.

Labor has seen this prospect for some time. We established a $20 million interactive games fund in 2012 when we were last in government. The Abbott government abolished it after just six months as part of the 2014 budget. We all remember that budget shortly after them coming to power. It abolished that fund with only half the money spent. Since that time, the Australian video game industry has had no federal support at all—none. This is despite four separate parliamentary committees making bipartisan recommendations that the industry be backed in by government. Two Commonwealth agencies have also recommended federal government support for the industry. Austrade recommended that video game development be included in the refundable 30 per cent post digital and visual effects tax offset.

Like things with the Morrison government, the states have been left to pick up the slack. Victoria, Queensland and South Australia all offer funding or tax incentives for video game development. Victoria, whose grant development program is now in its sixth year, has become the game development capital of Australia, thanks to the Andrews government support. In fact, half the industry is located in my home state of Victoria. I recently had the privilege to tour the studios of the Big Ant video game development company, makers of AO Tennis and Cricket 19, with the local member, the member for Macnamara.

It is important to note today, given the events happening outside this building, that women are underrepresented in STEM generally, and the gaming industry is no exception. Thanks to groups like The Working Lunch, the Girl Geek Academy, Women Who Code and SheHacks, this is an issue that is being tackled head on. These groups do vital work to address female representation in gaming and STEM more broadly but there's much more that we should be doing to help them as leaders and as a government.

This is an industry that we need to grow as an ecosystem. In 2019 global revenue from eSports—the viewing, the broadcasting of people playing games—was a $1.1 billion industry in itself and is expected to double by 2023. Unfortunately, in Australia, our share of that eSports revenue was just $5 million in 2019. We love our sports as Australians and during COVID-19, when holding live sports wasn't possible, many of the big leagues in the world switched to eSports tournaments. I know that V8 Supercars did with some success. PwC believes that, if we continue on this path, Australia's total eSports revenue could reach $12 million by 2024, but I think with the right federal support we could grow the domestic industry and take an even bigger slice of this global billion-dollar pie.

Despite the Australian video game industry punching above its weight globally, we are at serious risk of losing this potential billion-dollar growth development industry. As Interactive Games and Entertainment Association CEO, Ron Curry, notes, 'Every other developed nation in the world has government incentive packages in place for game developers. Everywhere except Australia.' The UK and Canada both have generous tax incentives to attract developers and to build a competitive industry. Our neighbours across the ditch recently announced $10 million to support the industry and have a target of a $1 billion industry in New Zealand within 10 years. They've got the vision across the ditch; we need the vision here in Australia.

The New Zealand industry employs roughly half the number of workers but produces double the revenue of the Australian industry; they aim high. Dylan Miklashek, the Brisbane head of the French mobile game company Gameloft, said in an interview with The Age recently:

Our salaries and cost of living are similar to Montreal or Vancouver. But the cost of our studio, because we don't have these incentives, is 30 to 40 per cent more.

… you can't be 30 to 40 per cent better than a studio that's in Montreal, which has that incredible ecosystem.

We need the Australian government to back in Australian video game developers and the high-wage high-skill jobs they create. It is this disadvantage—a lack of government support that the Australian industry faces globally—that we have to address here in this chamber. That's why I established the Parliamentary Friends of Video Games with Senator McGrath in the other place and it's why I'm introducing this motion today.

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