“We have Australian content requirements on free-to-air television and pay television, but until now, there has been no guarantee that we could see our own stories on streaming services,” said Arts Minister Tony Burke on Tuesday.
Hailing the “extraordinary shows” the streamers have already produced locally, Burke said “this obligation will ensure that those stories – our stories – continue to be made”.
Debate has raged for almost a decade over how and whether to regulate the streamers to ensure they support local content production. As they have stolen audience share from free-to-air television, the sense of urgency has risen dramatically.
In 2021, Paul Fletcher, the then Coalition government’s minister for arts and communications, proposed a voluntary 5 per cent quota on the streamers. Labor condemned the figure as far too low and the Greens have consistently argued for a levy of 20 per cent of Australian revenues.
Since becoming arts minister when Labor came to power the following year, Burke has been repeatedly frustrated in his attempts to develop a framework that adequately manages the complexity of the streaming sector, in which the various players operate with vastly different models. Netflix and Disney, for instance, are pure-play services, but Amazon bundles its subscription with its Prime delivery service, while Apple offers it as a bonus with many of its hardware products.
More recently, the threat of legal challenges for potential breaches of the Australia-United States Free Trade Agreement has been raised, as has the potential for retaliatory tariffs to be levied by the Trump administration.
The precise detail of the model Labor will take to parliament is not yet clear, but the Australian Writers’ Guild and Screen Producers Australia have been quick to welcome it.
“This announcement marks a landmark day for the Australian screen industry,” said Screen Producers Australia chief executive Matthew Deaner.
“Amid global uncertainty, the government has said it wants to ensure a future for Australian content,” said Claire Pullen, chief executive of the Australian Writers’ Guild.