HOLA! PREMIER DIGS UP FUNDS FOR DORA

PRODUCTION for the Gold Coast’s next blockbuster Hollywood film will begin shortly after the Commonwealth Games.

Following yesterday’s announcement by premier Annastacia Palaszczuk that Dora The Explorer will be coming to the Gold Coast, the Bulletin can reveal production is slated to begin in July.

Ms Palaszczuk secured the shooting of the blockbuster by Paramount Pictures after a standoff between state and federal governments to increase the standard 16.5 per cent tax offset to attract the film.

The Queensland Government will dip into a $20 million film attraction fund and use money budgeted for Commonwealth Games “legacy”.

THIS past week has seen the Gold Coast at its best.

Just about everyone loves the beach but not everyone loves every beach and don’t get me started on who has the best pie, the slickest coffee shop or the best fish and chips (I know where it is but I’m not telling).

But there is one thing we all agree on. We want jobs for the Coast. It’s why we Saved Dora.

You don’t need me to tell

you how valuable our film and TV industry is. You know the stats: $200,000 a day on everything from hammers to hotels.

But this past week you’ve heard it first-hand from dozens of people in these industries who pay their bills using the money these projects provide.

They were there in a Brisbane cinema yesterday to hear how their campaign, played out in the pages of this newspaper, won this latest blockbuster for the Gold Coast. This is their victory not mine.

When I got federal treasurer Scott Morrison’s face palm letter on Friday, telling us there’d be no Canberra rescue for Dora I simply couldn’t let the Gold Coast down.

It was early evening LA time but I summoned my director-general and Treasurer Jackie Trad and we jumped on the phones and email to our friends at Paramount first asking for more time to meet their deadline for a decision and then finding the money so Queensland could do what Canberra wouldn’t.

Screen Queensland’s priceless film industry contacts swung into action too but it was a tense 48 hours of talks before we were finally able to tell the world Dora would be an honorary Queenslander.

There is money set aside for maximising our Commonwealth Games assets after. It includes Sound Stage 9 at Movie World. By July it will be Dora’s home. I can’t thank the

Bulletin and its readers enough for their role in Saving Dora.

Malcolm Turnbull has to do what his own federal government committee has told him to do – put tax incentives up from 16.5% to 30% so we can compete with the rest of the world and stop this silly funding row re-run every time we want another movie.