Seeing our stories on our screens is not something we can take for granted.
Our success as an industry is not something we can take for granted.
Working together as an industry to reflect the diversity of Australian experiences to ourselves and the world, is not something we can take for granted.
New content services bring the world’s stories to newer screens.
The Australia of today is also much different from that of 50 years ago.
Today’s Australia speaks 300 languages in our homes, with more than 100 religions and more than 300 different ancestries, and almost half of its people born overseas or with a parent born overseas.
This Australia deserves to have its stories made Australian.
But our stories are being drowned out.
Our children are growing up surrounded with foreign content and speaking American and British accents.
So we need to once again stand together to make it Australian; to see Australian stories on Australian screens.
Today, just as we asked in the 1960s and 1970s, we ask the government to ensure that those who provide the services contribute to our stories.
We ask the government to ensure public funding for public broadcasters and screen agencies.
As it was in the 1960s and 1970s, it is time again to Make it Australian.