Local theatre producers are routinely hiring British directors and creative teams, then getting sets and costumes made in the UK and shipped to Australia, because of generous tax offsets for live productions in the UK which the Albanese government has not matched.

Theatre Tax Relief was enacted by then prime minister David Cameron’s government in 2014 and gives the producers of plays, operas or musicals a cash rebate of at least 40 per cent of whatever direct pre-production costs they incur in Britain, provided they are registered for UK corporate tax.