Queensland movie success mainly due to federal funding

As the Commonwealth Minister who looks after the interests of our screen industry, naturally I was delighted to see additional support flowing to the sector in last week’s Queensland Budget.

But I was puzzled by some of the accompanying commentary by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.   

"Our screen success is not an accident, but the result of long-term planning and strategic investment in the industry, led by Screen Queensland," she opined.

The first bit is true enough: the current boom in film production Australia-wide, and especially in Queensland, is far from an accident.

But overwhelmingly, it is Commonwealth support for the sector that has allowed it to survive the threat of COVID-19 - and to turn that threat into a platform for sustained growth.

High-profile Hollywood productions currently shooting in Queensland, or soon to start production there, include Ron Howard’s Thirteen Lives, based on the incredible 2018 Thai Caves rescue; Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic; Matchbox Pictures' TV series Irreverent; and, later this year, Ticket to Paradise, starring George Clooney and Julia Roberts.

When I spoke with Ron Howard on the set of Thirteen Lives on the Gold Coast back in February, he was clear about what had lured this major international movie to Queensland. “The difference is that we recognise that it’s a [COVID] safe environment to begin with—that’s huge for an ambitious project like this,” he told me. “And then of course the government support on the financial side makes a world of difference to making an ambitious project like this viable.”

The key support Howard was talking about is the Morrison Government’s Location Incentive program, which contributed $13 million to Imagine Entertainment and MGM to produce Thirteen Lives.

The Location Incentive is a merit-based grant that provides up to 13.5 per cent of a movie’s production expenditure in Australia. In July 2020, when COVID threatened to ravage the screen sector, the Morrison Government pumped an extra $400 million into the Incentive, bringing the total to $540 million over seven years.

Along with the existing 16.5 per cent Location Offset tax rebate, the Incentive means international films can access effective support of up to 30 per cent. This makes Australia internationally competitive with other major global production destinations.

Our decision to turbo-charge the Location Incentive was designed to boost Australia’s world-class screen sector – and help our nation’s economic recovery from the pandemic. Because, let’s face it, if you want to stand up a $100 million business in short order, a big Hollywood production is an effective way to do it.

The Location Incentive is an economic multiplier. Along with the jobs flowing to those who work directly in the industry, such as actors and set designers, a host of ancillary services also get business, including those that feed and house the huge cast and crew behind these productions.

The Morrison Government has so far announced support of more than $226 million for 23 productions to film in Australia under the extended Location Incentive program. And nearly half of those are filming, or will film, in Queensland.

These 23 productions are expected to generate about $1.74 billion of expenditure in Australia and provide more than 13,000 jobs for local cast and crew—along with using the services of over 13,800 Australian businesses and employing over 32,000 Australian extras.

Even better, these productions will help develop the next generation of world-class Australian screen talent. That’s because productions supported by the Location Incentive must commit to training and skills development for Australians.

The Morrison Government’s screen funding policies, particularly the Location Offset and Location Incentive, are big winners for Australia.

We welcome further support from state governments, like that announced in the recent Queensland budget.

 But the fact is that on the productions attracted to Queensland, Commonwealth support is considerably bigger than Queensland Government support. 

In the movie business, they pay a lot of attention to who gets a credit.

So I say to Premier Palasczuk: by all means give yourself the credit as best supporting actor.  But you should recognise who is playing the lead.

This article appeared in The Courier Mail on 23 June 2021