Zali Steggall (Warringah, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the Prime Minister: Manel Lopez is a sound technician in the film industry with over 25 years' experience. He wrote to me: 'I've reached the point where working in the industry is unsustainable. I'm at the end of my resilience. Mentally, financially, the situation has taken a huge toll on me and my family. This is happening all over the country. We need local content quotas, but we needed them five years ago. It was a promise that Labor took to the election. For many of us, it's almost too late.' Will the government make good on its repeated promises to legislate local content quotas on streamers and save these Australian jobs?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just briefly—before I hand to the arts minister—we very much support local content in the Australian arts sector, right across the board. Whether it be people who are involved in drama and production in that area, whether it be music—and Missy Higgins was good enough to come here to support Australian music today—or whether it be all of the creative sector, we are really proud of what our government has done and we'll continue to engage so that Australian voices are heard.

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

Thanks to the Prime Minister. The policy of the government hasn't changed. The principle that we're working towards is really simple. If you pick up your remote control at home, and you go to the ABC or SBS, you're guaranteed Australian content. If you go to the commercial TV stations, there's still some level of Australian content guaranteed. If you go to Foxtel, there's still Australian content. Yet, if you're sitting there with the same remote control, flicking to any of the streaming services, there's currently no guarantee of Australian content. This is something where people are aware of some of the different negotiations that the government has been doing, but, effectively, the objective is simple: no matter which remote control you're holding, Australian content should be at your fingertips.

The methods that we've used previously for other forms of Australian content don't match with the streaming services. For example, what we do on free-to-air TV, where you have particular times of day and guarantees, don't work when you're dealing with an on-demand service. Similarly, the guaranteed funding that happens to SBS or the ABC doesn't work for a commercial streaming service. So the methods have to be different, and that means we need to work through a series of different trade obligations. But, in doing so, the government's objective, which we've previously stated, remains completely on foot, and we hope to continue to be able to report more to the House.