Justine Elliot (Richmond, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I am very pleased to announce that the government will commit $350,000 in one-off funding to expand access to the cinema for some of the four million Australians with a hearing impairment. Many of them, of course, are older Australians. This plan is called Helping Older Australians Enjoy the Movies: Accessible Cinema. We all know about the population shift and that, within 50 years, the proportion of the population over 65 will have tripled. This plan is part of the federal government’s commitment to a greater focus on positive and active ageing. It is part of our wider agenda to promote social inclusion and participation, as well as reducing social isolation. Many older Australians have told me indeed that they want to share in the enjoyment and pleasure of going to the movies with their grandchildren during school holidays but cannot enjoy the films because they are unable to hear them. This plan is about allowing people with hearing impairments to enjoy really great blockbusters like Get Smart or Kung Fu Panda with their grandchildren. I want to be able to help throw open even more doors in Australian cinemas to people with hearing impairments. And for some this may be the first film they have been to see in many years.

One in six Australians has a hearing loss, and this is projected to increase to one in four by 2050. Currently, Australian Hearing confirms that over half the population aged between 60 and 70 have a hearing loss. This increases to 70 per cent of those over the age of 70. What is more staggering is that more than half of Australia’s farmers are likely to suffer from premature hearing loss through their work. The Australian government is committed to helping older people maintain their independence and keeping them connected to their communities. That is why the Department of Health and Ageing will be working together with the Independent Cinemas Association of Australia and Media Access Australia to enable greater access to regional and independent cinemas to those with a hearing impairment. The partnership between the Independent Cinemas Association of Australia and Media Access Australia builds on their work with cinemas and consumers that aims to make cinemas accessible to those that are hearing impaired.

In mid-2007 the USA had more than 830 accessible cinemas, representing about 15 per cent of locations and one accessible cinema for every 357,000 people. The United Kingdom had more than 250 cinemas, representing nearly 38 per cent of locations. That is one accessible cinema for every 243,000 people. New Zealand has three accessible cinemas but with captions only, representing three per cent of locations. That is one accessible cinema for every 1.4 million people.

In 2001, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission forged an agreement with Hoyts, Greater Union and Village that specifies three sessions a week of captioned films in 10 locations nationally. These locations are in eight capital cities plus Glendale in Newcastle and Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast. This represents only two per cent of cinemas in Australia being accessible. This followed a case with the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and a Perth gentleman.

Regional cinemas, although keen to implement accessible cinema sessions, have lower profit margins compared to metropolitan multiplexes. The cost for the purchase of accessible equipment is a financial expense that many regional cinemas will struggle to meet. Today’s announcement of $350,000 in funding will allow Australia to more than double its current access to cinemas, with a very strong focus on regional, suburban and independent cinemas. There is, of course, a long way to go, but this is a first step.

This seed funding provides a one-off injection, but I am hopeful that cinemas all over the country will realise the commercial gains that are possible by catering for this very fast growing demographic. It is hoped that Helping Older Australians Enjoy the Movies: Accessible Cinema will encourage the major commercial chains to further expand their AD—audio description—and captioning programs.

This morning I wrote to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and Graeme Innes, Human Rights Commissioner and Commissioner responsible for Disability Discrimination, advising him and the organisation of the decision. This funding will allow 12 cinemas to be fitted out with the DTS cinema subtitling system, including transmitters and headsets for audio description, that enables the audio description and captioning.

Further to this, today’s announcement allows those with hearing and vision impairment to share social and family experiences, which were limited before to the 10 cinemas in Australia. This brings the total to 22. This also brings it into line with the Australian Film Finance Corporation commitment that from 1 July 2007 all Australian features funded by the FFC will be captioned. This means more people will be able to see Australian films.

Captioning is the reproduction of a soundtrack in text format. Similar to subtitles, captions are a transcription of the entire soundtrack, including sound effects, into the same language. Audio description, or AD, is a service where additional commentary is provided to narrate the visual elements of a movie. AD guides the listener with concise, objective descriptions of new scenes, settings, costumes, body language and ‘sight gags’, all spoken between existing portions of dialogue.

On a final note can I say that I was pleased to hear and am pleased to point out that there were indeed many patrons this morning at captioned screenings of Sex and the City, which played in Brisbane, Darwin, Sydney, Adelaide and Maroochydore. I would also like to note that the next film screening at those locations is The Incredible Hulk, showing this Friday and Sunday, so many people will be enjoying that and many more people across Australia will be able to enjoy films with this special funding.

In closing, I table a release from the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission welcoming this funding announcement and the difference that it will make to people’s lives in terms of accessing the cinema.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for McPherson to speak for seven minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent Mrs May speaking for a period not exceeding seven minutes.

Question agreed to.

Margaret May (McPherson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Ageing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am happy to speak on the Minister for Ageing’s ministerial statement today on captioning for the hearing impaired and audio description for people who are sight impaired. Today’s announcement provides me with an opportunity to advise the House that it was actually the Howard government, in 2007, that was behind this initiative, when the then Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator the Hon. Helen Coonan, announced an investigation into access to adequate electronic media for the hearing impaired. I also want to put on the record and acknowledge the active role that the Democrats played in relation to that matter. The Howard government was committed to ensuring that every Australian had access to adequate electronic information channels, and today’s announcement is a positive step forward to meeting that commitment that was made by the former government.

I would like to extend my thanks to the minister for advising me earlier today of the initiative and extending to me the courtesy of time to become familiar with the announcement. It is one that I and older Australians in this country who are hearing and visually impaired certainly welcome. It is a great step forward. It is a positive step for those older Australians and I commend the minister for the great initiative. As I have said, it has been an important announcement and I would like to commend the government on the initiative to provide this funding, particularly the funding that is going to be provided—I understand from the minister’s press release of today—to those smaller, independent cinemas throughout regional and rural Australia. They will receive the funding, I understand, for the special audio equipment that will bring cinema to the lives of thousands of hearing and visually impaired older Australians.

I understand—and the minister certainly confirmed it today in her speech—that $350,000 is a one-off grant for a project entitled Helping Older Australians Enjoy the Movies: Accessible Cinema, and the funding itself will be provided to 12 cinema locations across Australia. We do not yet know where those locations will be, but I understand that announcement will be made shortly. Today’s announcement will bring the number of accessible cinemas for hearing and visually impaired people to 22, which is great news for those cinemas that will be successful in obtaining that funding. I hope too that in time, when the success of the program is realised, the government will look at expanding even further what I believe will be a very positive initiative for those older Australians who may in fact be socially disconnected from their communities and from cultural activities because of hearing and visual impairments. The Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, as we have heard already today, have also commended the initiative, and I too echo the commission’s sentiments in their statement.

In my first term in this place I spoke about captioning for television and the importance to Australians with hearing impairments of having access to free-to-air television. The initiative being announced today recognises that Australians, particularly the elderly who are visually and hearing impaired, will be provided with a pleasure that we all take for granted. I would hasten to add that probably many of us in this House enjoy a trip to the movies. I know that as a busy member of parliament if I can grab a couple of hours to sit in a cinema it is a sort of escape. To see the latest Australian and international movies and to have that opportunity now available to older Australians with those impairments really is worthwhile. As we have heard from the minister today the program will be expanded. There will be 12 new cinemas, taking the number to 22 cinemas, making movies far more accessible to a far greater number of visually and hearing impaired older Australians.

Going to the cinema is one way that older Australians can maintain social interaction and there is no doubt that social and cultural pursuits play a big part in warding off that dreadful disease, dementia. Alzheimer’s Australia have warned Australians that dementia is on the rise and up to 156 cases are diagnosed in Australia every day. Alzheimer’s Mind your Mind program is all about proactively looking after your brain by keeping mentally active and of course minding your social life by staying connected and socially active. The initiative that the minister has announced today will certainly assist those older Australians to ward off the onset of dementia. Research has found that ongoing learning and mental stimulation throughout life is one of the keys to a strong, agile mind, and the movies, I believe, will help that stimulation and of course offer a social event in those people’s lives. It will give them social interaction, whether going to the movies with their grandchildren or with friends, and it will certainly include them in our local communities. As the minister has indicated in her speech today, this initiative will see an increased number of hearing and vision impaired people enjoy a film for the first time. It means that these people will share in an experience that many of us take for granted.

Overall, it is pleasing that the funding will assist those small cinemas in regional and rural Australia with the cost of the equipment needed to deliver the captioning and audio description to those people. Often in this House we forget that remote, rural and regional communities do not have access to many things that we take for granted. I hope that in the selection of locations the government is mindful of those communities most in need, in serving larger populations of hearing and visually impaired older Australians in those remote and regional communities throughout Australia.

In closing, I also want to commend the partnership between the Independent Cinemas Association of Australia and Media Access Australia on the work they have done with cinemas and consumers to ensure that cinemas are accessible to those people who are hearing impaired. Both these organisations, I understand, will work with the Department of Health and Ageing to select the 12 new cinema locations throughout rural and regional Australia and those suburban areas that will be successful with the funding.

Finally, I do commend this initiative. I commend the minister for bringing it to the House today and I also say to those older Australians who are going to have the opportunity to watch those Australian movies, which will all be captioned, and those international movies that we all take for granted: have those few hours off, go to the cinema and enjoy it with friends. It is a great initiative and I commend the minister.