Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Mallee. This gives me the opportunity to acknowledge the member for Mallee as one of a number of members from her party who have a long-term investment and interest—an investment in the political sense, not the monetary sense—in making sure that Australian content is well supported on our screens. I do acknowledge that.

As I said right at the start before we started the amendments, the bill that's before the House has gone through a lot of work to make sure that we are fully meeting our trade obligations and the government is not in position to be supporting various amendments. I do note the spirit of what the member for Mallee has moved. It does make a massive difference to communities when they see their stories on-screen. Only very recently, I was on the West Coast of Tasmania. The impact that the Bay of Fires series has had there is phenomenal. There are some series where you get a tiny bit that's done on location and then the rest of it is done with green screens in major cities. The programs that do really invest in different communities around the country are appreciated, and it matters. That said, it doesn't change the legal situation the government is in with respect to trade laws, so, while I'm very respectful of the reasons that this is being put forward, the government is not in a position to support the amendments.

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