TRANSCRIPT - SKY FIRST EDITION - PETER STEFANOVIC 31 JANUARY

TRANSCRIPT

SKY FIRST EDITION WITH PETER STEFANOVIC

31 January 2023

 

E&OE

 

Subject/s: National Cultural Policy, Alice Springs

 

PETER STEFANOVIC: We'll bring it back to the studio now because joining us live is the Shadow Arts Minister, Paul Fletcher. Paul, good to see you. Thanks for your time this morning. So we had the big announcement yesterday from Tony Burke and the Prime Minister, too, to try and introduce quotas. The exact quota will come down the track when it comes to local content from streamers, the package was called, Revive some $300 million worth. It's got to be good for the local industry, doesn't it?

 

PAUL FLETCHER: Well Labour's so-called national cultural policy announced yesterday doesn't contain much that's new and doesn't contain much new money. So look, there are certainly things in there that are sensible. The emphasis on Indigenous art we support, we released a national Indigenous Visual Art Action Plan in late 2021 with the commitment, amongst other things, to intellectual property reform to support Aboriginal Art. And we welcome that being continued. We welcome the focus on contemporary music under our rise, $200 million of arts funding about 68 million of that went to contemporary music or festivals, including contemporary music. We welcome the 30% digital games tax offset, which we announced in the budget in 2021. But when you look at the money, there's been a lot of hype from Labor they’ve been building up expectations about this policy going back to the election. When you look at the money, in fact on the details is only about 240 million of two money(?) over four years, 60 million a year. Now we spent in 2021/22 total arts funding and a Coalition government, 1070 million. That's a record never matched by any Liberal or Labor government. That hasn't changed with yesterday’s announcement.

 

STEFANOVIC: But what about when it comes to streamers and quotas? They don't have any. So surely it's a good start to be able to put a figure on that.

 

FLETCHER: And again, we did a lot of work on that. We released a proposed approach in early 2022. We also imposed the requirement which they've now been following to report each year on the amount of Australian content, the amount they're spending on Australian content, the streamers, this is players like Netflix, Stan and so on.

 

STEFANOVIC: There’s still no quota…

 

FLETCHER: And so we laid out some next steps. What the government has announced yesterday is effectively there’s going to be six months of consultation. They haven't said what the quota is going to be. There's a lot of issues of detail that need to be worked through. How do you define Australian content? So let's let that play out well.

 

STEFANOVIC: Okay, well, how would you define Australian content? Well should say a Pirates of the Caribbean movie that comes out here, should that be classified as Australian content?

 

FLETCHER: These are all the issues of detail you need to sort out a very good example…

 

STEFANOVIC: It’s good that they have a six month period.

 

FLETCHER: There definitely needs to be consultation. There's a lot of detail here. The stream is already spending over $600 million a year on Australian content. That's good and they should be spending money on Australian content. We push them to do that and I welcome that. We need to understand what the impacts are on the overall capacity of the domestic sector. So a lot of issues to work through. Of course we want to have Australian content on streaming video on demand services like Netflix, Stan and others, just as those obligations exist on free to air TV and on Foxtel, on pay-TV.

 

STEFANOVIC: That's not fair that they have these quotas free way. You just pointed out and the streamers don’t. So, what's a reasonable number?

 

FLETCHER: So, those are the details the government is consulting on what we announced when we were in government was that if the streamers didn't reach 5% of their Australian revenue being spent on producing Australian content, then the minister would have the power to come in and set a formal target. So that was what we arrived at after quite extensive consultation of what we were then going to the next level of consultation...

 

STEFANOVIC: Are you happy with that number, or do you think it should be increased?

 

FLETCHER: Well, that was what we committed to after detailed policy work.

 

STEFANOVIC: Why, so low?

 

FLETCHER: Well, just be clear, though, we're talking about a percentage of total revenue being spent on Australian content. Now Foxtel's obligation, for example, the percentage it spends on drama in total, what percentage of that is Australian drama? So very different calculation and what's on the free to air is different again, which is effectively a points-based scheme that starts with the number of hours and then weights them for the budget.

 

STEFANOVIC: Yeah, right.

 

FLETCHER: So, my point is it's complicated. You want to have competitive neutrality. That's what the ACCC recommended when they did a report on this, the digital platforms inquiry in 2019. What's unusual about what Labor's doing is we've got the Communications Minister, it would seem with responsibility for free to air and pay TV and the Arts Minister with responsibility for the streaming services. We need to have competitive neutrality and consistency. So, let’s start to see some of that.

 

STEFANOVIC: So how do you do force them to do it? How do come at them with a big stick when they're the ones who are paying all the bills?

 

FLETCHER: The streaming service?

 

STEFANOVIC: Yeah the streaming service.

 

FLETCHER: I mean, there's no doubt that Australia has the capacity to do this. We have the legislative power and we've seen these issues with internet-based businesses of other kinds. That's not the biggest challenge in my view, the question is what is an appropriate level to set it at? And this is a matter of media policy as well as arts policy. We need to hear the Communications Minister. We've heard virtually nothing from her. It's all been from the Arts Minister.

 

STEFANOVIC: Yeah.

 

FLETCHER: And we need to make sure there is consistency and competitive neutrality across the approach for free to air TV, for pay TV and for streaming services.

 

STEFANOVIC: If you set it too high, will you chase them out of town?

 

FLETCHER: Well, that is a clear risk. That is a risk that needs to be weighed up. And one of the other risks that need to be weighed up is that does the domestic production sector have the capacity to produce all of what's required? They're already growing sharply and what they're producing, that's great. We wanted the production sector to be bigger. That's why we increased the producer offset for television from 20% to 30%. That was a significant funding injection into the Australian production sector and we absolutely want to see more Australian production being seen on the streaming platforms all around the world. It's a huge opportunity. One Australian show getting on one of the global streamers will be seen by many more people than an Australian movie.

 

STEFANOVIC: I no doubt about that yet. Interesting to see what sort of answers come to those questions in the coming months. Just a quick one here before you go. Jacinta Price has weighed into this criticism about Anthony Albanese spending more time at the tennis than he did in Alice Springs. What's your thoughts on that?

 

FLETCHER: It's a perfectly reasonable question. The Prime Minister spent a lot of time at the tennis, enjoying corporate hospitality, but there are pressing issues in relation to the safety of Indigenous Australians in Alice Springs. We’ve seen community leaders in the Pilbara and Kimberly, calling on the Prime Minister to visit places like Carnarvon. So, let’s see some focus from the Prime Minister on this pressing issue of public safety.

 

ENDS 

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