Fifield takes the director’s chair
Minister to call shots on how $140 million fund is spent
THE Queensland Government says the federal minister overseeing the rollout of the $140 million Location Incentive Grant doesn’t understand the importance of the screen industry and the jobs it provides to the Gold Coast.
The long-awaited guidelines on how the Federal Government’s $140 million, four-year top-up to the location offset will be distributed were released last week.
They reveal Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield will call the shots when it comes to which big-budget movies the funds are used to lure to film in Australia.
A spokesman for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk
said the grant guidelines showed the funds would do little to support the screen industry in Queensland.
“The annual $35 million cap will only fund two to three major productions nationwide, meaning there is no guarantee the Gold Coast or Queensland will benefit,” he said.
“It’s pretty clear from
these guidelines that Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield doesn’t understand the importance of the screen industry and the jobs it provides to the Gold Coast.
“Being a regional centre, films on the Gold Coast have a major economic and employment impact – far more so than in major capital
cities – and the city runs the risk of being deprived of this investment.”
The Premier’s spokesman said the guidelines’ exclusion of streaming video on demand was “shortsighted” and ignored evolving viewership trends.
Bond University director of film and television Dr Michael Sergi said the Gov- ernment had “unnecessarily increased the amount of red tape” for applicants.
Village Roadshow Studios president Lynne Benzie welcomed the guidelines as “a fantastic starting point to continuing the success of the industry in Australia” but said some aspects required further explanation.
“An area of interest we would like to have some additional information around is how the funds will be distributed if multiple productions apply and meet the criteria,” she said.
Announced in May, the top-up provides for $35 million of funding a year from July 1, 2019, for eligible productions filmed in Australia from July 1 this year.
Senator Fifield’s office failed to answer the questions on how the guidelines would work.