It was summer 2022 and Arts Minister Tony Burke was riffing with a friendly audience at the Woodford Folk Festival.
Foreshadowing the release of Labor’s national cultural policy, Revive, Burke told festival-goers that Australia’s domestic TV and film industry faced an “automatic structural disadvantage”. Australia’s relatively small English-speaking production sector couldn’t compete with cheaper content churned out by US and British producers, he said. “The only way you fix that disadvantage is with Australian content quotas.”
Content quotas were an election promise for Labor, alongside its commitment to the new cultural policy. At the unveiling of Revive in February 2023, Burke committed the government to introducing legislation by the second half of 2024.
But as 2024 winds to a close, the content quota is nowhere to be seen. No legislation has been introduced, and industry and consumers are none the wiser on what new content rules might look like.
Quotas work by imposing a regulation on the amount of local content required from a platform or broadcaster. For decades, robust local content rules meant more than 50% of prime-time Australian television had to be locally made. Since quotas for Australian children’s content were removed under the Morrison government, locally made children’s television has dwindled.
Because they weren’t broadcasters, the streaming platforms have never faced local content rules, and they’re not keen on any new regulatory impost. The big platforms have pursued a less than discrete lobbying campaign in Canberra against them.
The local screen sector is starting to ask whether content quotas are coming at all. It’s potentially a big deal, as quotas would provide a policy underpinning further expansion in local production.
Screen Producers Australia’s Matthew Deaner is asking: what’s the hold-up?
“Regulating these digital platforms that have upended our industry is long overdue now, as that is absolutely where audiences have moved to,” he wrote in an email to Crikey. “For the sake of Australian audiences being able to continue to see and experience their own screen culture, it is vital that this impasse is dealt with expediently and that delaying tactics are concluded.”
Rumours from Canberra suggest the legislation is indeed being delayed, as Burke has encountered difficulties inside cabinet. One source told Crikey that the trade department had intervened to block screen quotas, concerned about the implications for Australia’s free-trade agreement with the United States. Trade Minister Don Farrell’s office declined to comment on the record.
The opposition and the Greens are also asking questions.
Shadow arts minister Paul Fletcher calls the government’s quota impasse a “confused mess”. He points out that the government should have anticipated there would be problems imposing a quota that could work alongside the free-trade agreement.
“Why, after being in government for more than two years, has the Albanese Labor government still not finalised and released legislation to give effect to this policy?” he asked.
Fletcher had a plan to bring in a voluntary 5% quota before leaving office; in contrast, Labor hasn’t delivered anything yet.
The Greens spokesperson for culture, Sarah Hanson-Young, blames lobbying from the American platforms.
“The big digital giants like Netflix and Amazon have been busy undermining the need for regulation of local stories on our screens,” she told Crikey. “These big US companies have bullied and bluffed for months, and now we hear the Labor government is too scared to push ahead with the reforms promised.”
The Greens back a 20% local content quota, and would presumably vote for a bill if it were presented, notwithstanding the bad blood between the Greens and Labor on housing legislation.
With Burke as arts minister, Labor’s track record in cultural policy has been progressive. The Albanese government has delivered increased cultural funding for artists and cultural institutions, restored funding for digital games, and increased the Location Offset from 16.5% to 30%.
But quotas are a keystone cultural policy reform. Take Spotify, the Swedish audio streaming giant. Industry estimates put Spotify’s market share of audio streaming in Australia at around 70% — a near monopoly. There are no requirements for Spotify when it comes to streaming Australian music or podcasts to local audiences.
A spokesperson for the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts told Crikey that quotas are still on the agenda — but that they’re now waiting on promised media reforms.
“The government is working to introduce content quota legislation as soon as possible,” the spokesperson told Crikey. “We are determined to get the consultation right and are taking time to hear views on how best to support ongoing investment in, and production of, Australian stories. The requirements will be implemented as part of the government’s broader reforms to media legislation.”
If quotas really are being packaged up with media reforms, the path to legislation could be tricky. The government faces difficult technical issues with its quest to impose an age limit on social media use. There is also the vexing problem of what to do about the now-moribund News Media Bargaining Code, with a Labor-chaired parliamentary committee recently recommending a digital platforms levy (you can imagine how the platforms will react to that). Without a bill before the Parliament, a swathe of policy and regulatory details remain unclear.
All of this suggests that local content quotas are a problem for 2025. With a federal election due in the first half of next year, it’s looking less and less likely Burke will get local content rules legislated in this term of government.
Would you support local content quotas that get more Australian content on our screens? Let us know your thoughts by writing to letters@crikey.com.au. Please include your full name to be considered for publication. We reserve the right to edit for length and clarity.
