Alison Byrnes (Cunningham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am also proud to rise today in support of this Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025. I am a fierce advocate for celebrating and protecting Australian content and Australian artists in all their forms, so I was really pleased to have the opportunity to talk about the buzz happening in the Illawarra right now with some really exciting projects we have seen this year.

Supporting Australian content is crucial, not only for the jobs and economic benefit that it gives supporting thousands of Australians every year and positioning Australia on the global stage but also for sharing our stories and for protecting our culture and way of life. Because while we share many similarities with places like the United Kingdom and the United States, there is something unique and special about Australia. Seeing that uniqueness represented on our screens is so important for cementing our own national identity, for us to know who we are, who our neighbours are and for fostering that shared sense of pride and understanding. You can't be what you can't see, and Australians need to see ourselves represented in the ever-growing streaming content that we consume every day.

This bill introduces a requirement for streaming services to include a minimum level of Australian content on their platforms. Streamers with more than one million Australian subscribers will need to invest at least 10 per cent of their total expenditure on new Australian commissions or first-release acquisitions, or, alternatively, streaming providers can choose into invest 7.5 per cent of their gross Australian revenue. The eligible programs will be new local drama, children's shows, documentaries, arts and educational programs. This is part of the Albanese Labor government's commitment in Revive, our national cultural policy to set local content requirements on streaming services.

Our government is committed to ensuring that our future is made in Australia. We believe in our core that our future must start at home. That is not just manufacturing and goods exports but also our cultural exports, and we simply cannot guarantee the future of Australian cultural exports without protecting them through content requirements. We have Australian content requirements on free-to-air television and on pay television, protecting Australian cultural identity and Australian jobs.

The growth of streaming services over the past few years has been huge and it is important they be subject to the same requirements for the same reason—to protect our stories and to ensure that we see ourselves represented in arts and culture. This guarantee means there will be Australian stories on all screens. In my electorate of Cunningham in the Illawarra. we are proving ourselves to be a big drawcard when it comes to content creation. If I have one message for the streaming companies it is: the Illawarra is open for business and we have it all. We are a short helicopter ride from Sydney, as we saw with Elton John, who proved this when he flew in and out of WIN Stadium for his amazing concert a few short years ago. From memory, it took him about 20 minutes—a very short commute, if you ask me.

We have the most picturesque coastline you could imagine. Our famous Seacliff Bridge has featured in advertisements and television shows multiple times, showcasing one aspect of what makes our coastline so beautiful—where the mountains meet the sea—as beautiful a picture as you can get. And Hollywood has already started to discover our wonderful recipe. This year alone we have seen two famous and recognisable faces come to Wollongong to make their latest Hollywood blockbusters. In February the incredible Russell Crowe was spotted in Wollongong Harbour filming his movie The Beast in Me with a famous Australian line-up that included Daniel MacPherson, Luke Hemsworth and Amy Shark. Russell has felt the Illawarra magic before, filming Poker Face in Kiama and Gerringong in 2022 as well.

Then, in April, the small and very quirky and arty town of Port Kembla was absolutely abuzz. The original Baywatch girl, Pamela Anderson herself, was filming on Wentworth Street. The film, Place to Be, used the Servo as its set—a fantastic local bar and live music venue that is also committed to giving local Australian artists a platform. Port Kembla was also the set for Stan's series Exposure in 2023 and featured in the BBC's mystery series Return to Paradise last year.

Another famous Hollywood movie, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, was filmed in multiple spots across the Illawarra, including in the old Helensburgh Tunnel, a spot many local people would have instantly recognised in the film. At the time, Screen Illawarra's Kingston Anderson said that the production was 'probably the largest feature film to be shot in Australia'. That happened in my hometown. There's not much that gets more thrilling than that.

We have so much potential—as you know, Deputy Speaker Freelander—not just for Hollywood but for locally made content as well. Our very own Yael Stone, of Orange Is the New Black fame, filmed her recent Paramount Plus series, One Night, in the northern suburbs of the Illawarra, with many instantly recognisable landmarks, like the famous Scarborough pub, the Sea Cliff Bridge, local train stations and more. In the series, Yael's character, Hat, does what many locals do—commutes to the city on the train everyday to get to work. It was actually at Thirroul train station where I met Yael for the very first time during the 2022 election campaign. This is a piece of our community's reality—a small, but important, feature of this drama series. Produced by the company of Screen Illawarra patron Ian Collie, Easy Tiger Productions, the film employed lots of locals and helped project our beautiful coastline onto screens worldwide.

The film, Over, is a community driven production which has a cast and crew entirely made up of Illawarra artists. It was filmed across Wollongong and last year it won Best Commissioned Film at the Creative Wollongong Short Film Festival. In yet another exciting development in 2025 that has really seen our region hit some high notes for Australian film, it took out the Specsavers Award for Best Australian Comedy Short Film at Flickerfest 2025. How great is that?

These are just some examples. There simply is not enough time to celebrate all the amazing productions that have come out of Wollongong in the last few years. A lot of these opportunities have been thanks to the incredible hard work of Screen Illawarra, which has been tireless in its effort to pitch our region to the screen industry. Earlier this year Screen Illawarra took a delegation of industry representatives from Warner Bros, Disney and the BBC on a tour of our coastline, visiting local attractions like Bald Hill, Symbio Wildlife Park, BlueScope and more. I have been speaking regularly with Screen Illawarra about ways that our government can help support them to grow this blossoming market. I look forward to seeing so many more exciting exports coming to a streamer near you very soon. There are lots of exciting possibilities being worked on—I'll say that much—and I can't wait to see what is next.

I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge and thank the chair of Screen Illawarra, Nick Bolton, and all of his team for their outstanding advocacy and genuine hard work in getting the Illawarra to where it is today and where it will be tomorrow. Our region is so lucky to have you fighting for us, seeing our potential and helping to make that a reality. Thank you.

It is not just film and television where our government is demonstrating our commitment to local Australian artists. Just last week I was so privileged to get to attend the ARIA Awards—our national night to celebrate everything Australian music. I owe a huge thanks to the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, for helping me to get there, for one very exciting reason. For the very first time, the ARIA Awards had a brand new category of Best Music Festival, and Wollongong's Yours and Owls was nominated. We could not have been prouder of our guys getting this national recognition, and I just had to be there with them to celebrate that. They may have been pipped at the post by Laneway Festival, but that does not diminish the incredible achievement it was to make it into that category in its inaugural year. Congratulations to Adam, Balunn, Ben and all their team on this mighty achievement.

What made the night even more exciting was that, while I was there, I got the news that Yours and Owls had been awarded $250,000 under the Revive Live program—so I got to tell Adam this exciting news face to face while we waited for the announcement of their award nomination. Revive Live is supporting our live music industry, keeping venues open, keeping festivals entertaining fans and keeping Australian music alive. It was such a great moment to give Adam that news, and I am so pleased to be supporting Yours and Owls with original Australian artist fees, marketing, production and accessibility costs.

I mentioned the servo earlier where Pamela Anderson was filming. Once again, I was delighted to provide them with $75,000 under Revive Live. We're also giving $33,832 to La La La's, another local live music venue which is helping to promote local artists and ensuring Australian music is enjoyed by fans in the Illawarra.

Since the Revive Live program began this year, we have delivered over $650,000 to help support local artists and venues. I will keep doing everything I can to champion Australian music, our talented Australian artists and the venues that celebrate them. I once again highlight the strong dedication our government has to protecting Australia's culture, protecting Australian content and ensuring we don't lose valuable jobs and revenue to overseas markets. I give a special mention here to the Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, and the Minister for Communications, Anika Wells, for their dedication to making these content requirements law.

We have a clear and defined purpose to create a future made in Australia. It's not a tagline. It's not just a motto. It is a guiding principle we are following through, with real policy and real funding to ensure it happens. This has real and tangible benefits for Australian communities, particularly in regions like the Illawarra. We have already been big winners here. We have everything you could ever need for a production. We've got the vistas, we've got the proximity to a large city and we've got the talent.

I recently went on a tour of Disney Studios in Moore Park. I wasn't surprised to learn that a significant portion of their workers live in the Illawarra, particularly in the animation field. That's a workforce ready to go for the next major Hollywood—or, hopefully, Australian—production. Big stars like Russell Crowe and Pamela Anderson know it. Companies like Disney and Warner Brothers have seen the potential. Our government will do everything we can to create the environment that attracts investment in Australian products and Australian people. It's just one more notch for a future made in Australia.

I say to anyone thinking about the next big Australian film or series: come and knock on our door. We're ready and the Illawarra is open for business. You will not regret spending your time in the mighty Illawarra. I commend the bill to the House.

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