In an effort to attract more big studio productions to Australia, the Morrison government will extend the life of its location incentive program by two years, boosting the budget of the screen initiative by $400m.
The government says expanding the program, which the Coalition first unveiled in 2018, will help attract a steady pipeline of big-budget productions to shoot in Australian studios, generating production and post-production work for the local film industry, which has been severely disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
The adjustment to the location incentive program, to be confirmed on Friday, follows the government’s decision to provide a $250m support package for Australia’s arts and cultural sectors, including $90m in government-backed concessional loans to fund new productions that will create jobs during the economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The support package unveiled in late June includes a $50m fund to be administered by Screen Australia to help finance local productions that have shut down to comply with public health measures. In addition to the social distancing requirements, many productions had to fold because they could not secure insurance.
The local industry has been devastated economically because of social distancing restrictions that have shut down film and television productions, theatres and touring shows.
The location incentive program was funded by the then Turnbull government at $140m, to run for four years from 2019-20. On Friday, the Morrison government will extend the life of the program out to 2026-27, and top up the funding by $400m.
The government said it had funded 10 productions to date through the location incentive program to the tune of $123m, including Thor: Love and Thunder and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in Sydney, Godzilla vs Kong on the Gold Coast, Shantaram and The Alchemyst in Melbourne.
The program works with a screen production incentive tax rebate that gives eligible big-budget blockbuster productions an offset rate of 30%. Departmental estimates suggest the additional $400m could attract $3bn worth of foreign expenditure and create 8,000 jobs.
In a statement ahead of the announcement, the prime minister said the support would fund both creative endeavour and the trades that allow screen productions to be realised. “Behind these projects are thousands of workers that build and light the stages, that feed, house and cater for the huge cast and crew and that bring the productions to life,” Morrison said.
“This is backing thousands of Australians who make their living working in front of the camera and behind the scenes in the creative economy.”
The arts minister, Paul Fletcher, said the location incentive was demonstrably an economic multiplier. “Through this additional commitment, the government is telling the world that Australia is a desirable destination for screen production – with great locations, skilled crews, world-class talent, post-production expertise and state of the art facilities,” he said.
