By Karl Quinn
The screen industry has reacted with outrage to a Commission of Audit recommendation that government agency Screen Australia have its budget halved and become part of a new arts mega body.
The Commission of Audit report, released on Thursday, proposes bringing together the Australia Council, Australian Business Arts Foundation, Screen Australia, Creative Partnerships Australia and Bundanon Arts Trust ‘‘into a single arts council’’ to reduce administrative costs and foster closer collaboration. The Australia Council declined to comment on the proposal.
Luke Arnold as Michael Hutchence in INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, one of many productions to have received Screen Australia support.
‘‘This would be disastrous for the Australian film and television industry and devastating to Australian audiences,’’ said Screen Producers Australia executive director Matthew Deaner.
‘‘It would mean the loss of thousands of highly skilled jobs in an industry renowned for innovation.
‘‘These proposals are clinical and driven by a single economic motive but the effect would undermine public and industry expectations as well as damage business confidence. They are clearly in conflict with current policy discussions and we expect the Government to take a more level headed approach in the upcoming budget.’’
Screen Australia received $98.1 million of federal government funding in the 2012-13 financial year, and claims its investments over the first five years of its existence had leveraged ‘‘more than $3 billion in production budgets’’.
The agency has oversight of investment programs for film, television, multimedia and games content and administers the tax rebate scheme known as the producer offset. As well as cutting the agency, the Commission of Audit has recommended ending the federal government’s subsidies ‘‘to attract international screen productions to Australia’’, the transfer of the Australian Film, Television and Radio School ‘‘to a university or vocational education institution’’, and the amalgamation of the Classification Review Board, which hears appeals against classification decisions, with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
It is the proposed cuts to Screen Australia, however, that have drawn most comment.
Filmmaker Robert Connolly said the proposal to fold the agency into a mega body, likely under the aegis of the Australia Council, was ill-informed.
‘‘It’s reductive of the value of different parts of the industry,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s like some naive view that all creative arts can be wrapped up and put on one shelf. It’s just crazy.’’Any perception that Screen Australia represented the interests only of a cultural elite could be disproved, he suggested, by reference to a recent Sunday night.
‘‘INXS: Never Tear Us Apart, Schapelle and Rake were all on one night, and all Screen Australia-supported,’’ he said. ‘‘You can’t have a nation that has 5 million of us enjoying our national stories and think this is a small issue.’’
Sue McCreadie, director of the actors union Equity, labelled the proposal ‘‘ill-considered’’. ‘‘It would be devastating for the screen industry and would be of no value to the arts sector,’’ she said. ‘‘The two linked proposals seem to be poorly researched and investigated.’’
Appealing to Arts Minister George Brandis, who helped create Screen Australia as a minister in the Howard government, she said, ‘‘we would be incredibly surprised if he thought it was a good idea’’.
Bundanon Trust chief executive Deborah Ely, said it would wait for the federal government to respond to the recommendations.
‘‘We’ve had no input into the Commission of Audit and at this stage we won’t be talking to government.’’ But Ms Ely said the Trust, which manages Arthur and Yvonne Boyd's gift of the Bundanon properties and collections, was ‘‘incredibly economically efficient’’ and generated almost 40 per cent of its revenue from sources other than the public purse.
Also facing the axe is community radio, which could be devastated if the government accepts the recommendation that it scrap $17.7 million of annual funding to the sector. Its rationale is that the government already funds the ABC and SBS to the tune of $1 billion annually. (The ABC is, however, likely to face cuts of its own as a result of a separate review.)
Adrian Basso, president of the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia and general manager of Melbourne community radio station PBS, said funding cuts would be “crippling” to the sector, affecting many unique services, including radio for the print-handicapped, indigenous stations and ethnic broadcasting.
“There are 380 stations around the country, a lot of them are regional or rural stations that run very much on the smell of an oily rag, completely volunteer-run, and often they’re the only producer of local content in their area,” Mr Basso said.
“They’re small communities, small stations, and it’s a fairly modest investment really given the extent of coverage that it gets.”
The government is expected to respond to the Commission’s recommendations in its May budget.
With Andrew Taylor, Annabel Ross, Bhakthi Puvanenthiran