In a speech to the Make It Australian campaign last week, Michelle Rowland congratulated the campaign for cutting through with both politicians and constituents – “engaging people from Blacktown to Broken Hill” on the value of Australian screen stories. She noted, however, that two years after it was announced, the Australian and Children’s Screen Content Review has amounted to virtually nothing.

“What proactive interventions the Government has made … overwhelmingly favour international companies (leaving) the broader ecosystem wanting.”

The Shadow Minister for Communications said that the policy and regulatory framework is now out of date and that the case for reform was made out many years ago. She pledged that if elected, the ALP Government would convene a Taskforce to conclude the Australian and Children’s Screen Content Review, and implement a consistent set of support mechanisms for Australian drama, documentary and children’s content, that applies across platforms, including SVOD services like Netflix, to ensure the ongoing availability of Australian screen content to Australian audiences.

The Task Force would be headed by an independent reviewer working with the Departments of Communications and the Arts, Screen Australia, the ACMA and ACCC. There would be a public consultation process on the options – in order to identify the regulatory impact and unintended consequences of the new measures, and it would be conducted in a transparent and evidence based manner.

You can read the whole speech here.

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