When it comes to attracting inbound productions, one of the strings in Australia’s bow has long been the states’ dollars, which stack on top of whatever the federal government has on offer to support screen production – both as direct support for production and location rebates.
The dollars on offer vary from state to state, and don’t come with too many strings attached as most productions accessing them have already had to clear the bar of satisfying federal criteria.
Last year filmmaker Baz Luhrmann put in some hard yards promoting Queensland as a good place to work, having done a fair amount of the work on Elvis in the state.
Brisbane and the Gold Coast have decent levels of infrastructure and crew, not to mention 300+ days of sunny weather, but the bulk of the inbound studio-based production heading for Aussie ends up in Melbourne or Sydney – and mostly in Sydney.
New South Wales has done a good job in supporting productions via various schemes, in particular its Made in NSW fund, and done a good job in attracting businesses to develop or expand facilities in the state.
For context, NSW houses two thirds of Australia’s 4,500 or so production companies and half its 3,000+ post businesses. The last reported figures from the state (2021-22) show screen industry income of over AU$3 billion. Unlike the NZ figures, which include everything from production and post to sales of Sky subscriptions and cinema tickets, the Australian numbers represent production and post spend across film, TV and game development.
So, screen production is a considerable contributor to the state of NSW, and a considerable provider of work.
Last week, NSW announced planned cuts to its support for film and TV, including to its Made in NSW fund. Earlier this week, the state put a number – a rather large AU$60 million number – on those cuts. Chaos predictably ensued, with Screen Producers Australia (SPA) quickly up to bat for the industry, although its initial efforts haven’t yet produced a change of heart.
As well as very publicly putting itself front and centre in opposing the state’s plans, SPA also quickly conducted a survey of members and businesses in the state who’d received state support for recently-completed productions or had been awarded (but not yet spent) state support.
The 85 coming (or, now, maybe not) productions which would be impacted by the cuts represent AU$1.4 billion worth of activity. Over 90% of businesses SPA surveyed said that they would move their affected productions out of state. So, saving NSW $60 million might cost it $1.4 billion.
One of the state’s recent arrivals, attracted by the amount of work available, was VFX facility DNEG. It’s already seeing work disappear on the back of the cut. As MD Alaric McAusland told Inside Film, “There’s competition interstate and overseas and producers will go where the incentives are best, and jobs and businesses will go with them.”
That rebates for screen production generate new work and spending is hardly news or new thinking. Many reports from many countries or regions come to the same conclusion, with the only variables being the level of benefit created – from about twice the rebate spend to (in the case of one UK report) 12 times the spend. The recent Olsberg report on NZ claimed a benefit of a little over $6 for each dollar of incentive spend.
As there’s a shortage of screen production work at the moment, it’s easy to imagine other Australian states rubbing their hands together, putting on their Sunday best and handing out the Lamingtons as new productions arrive. NSW’s loss is another state’s gain.
For SPA, its concerns are for the industry as a whole. While it’s making a strong case for NSW not to pull the plug, SPA will be as concerned that work remains in Australia rather than goes elsewhere.
Why should we care? From this side of the ditch, it’s easy to criticise NSW’s decision-making as the sort of foot-shooting fuck-wittery Act will try to introduce after the coming election.
Practically, it’s unlikely NZ will pick up many, if any, of the projects looking to shift out of NSW.
Even without the NSW support, inbound projects doing production or post in the state will still get a 30% federal rebate. Elsewhere in Australia, where state-level top-ups remain intact, a 30% rebate looks light. And, if a 30% rebate isn’t good enough to retain well over a billion dollars of new production activity in NSW, what looks really light?
20%, plus a possible 5% uplift if you smile real purdy.
