What will deliver on the PM’s promise to Australian audiences and our screen industry?
Australian audiences must be able to see and hear their own screen stories
Fair Streaming Investment: Introduce a flexible and fair local content investment obligation for streaming platforms tied to revenue and/or subscribers.
Protect Australian Creativity: Strengthen intellectual property protections to keep Australian stories in Australian hands through a rights retention framework.
Support Cultural Independence: Ensure a role for independent screen businesses so they can thrive and remain autonomous.
Why?
Audiences have shifted to online streaming platforms, but our local content regulations have not yet kept pace. This is leaving Australian audiences, including our most vulnerable children, with very limited access to their own stories and culture.
Screen stories are undoubtedly the most accessible form of culture available to audiences. So the local content rules for the screen industry that have served us so well for decades on other platforms such as commercial free-to-air and subscription (ie, Foxtel) must now be adapted to apply to online streaming platforms to keep local storytelling culture within reach of us all.
Access to arts and culture is a vital part of our existence – experiencing creative expression can help us address some of our most challenging issues, including social cohesion, the opportunity to connect, develop resilience and a sense of place in society.
Local content rules should support authentic local storytelling, including for child audiences, protect Australian copyright and IP, and provide a recognised role for our independent screen businesses so that we can maintain our cultural sovereignty.
Streaming platforms have been a part of our lives for ten years now. The time for action is long overdue.
