Labor's love lost? 'Patchy at best' is Geoff Brown's analysis of labor's performance after 18 months in power.(Above The Line LA Insider)

WITH ALL THE INDUSTRY'S CONCERNS surrounding the federal budget it's important to put things in perspective. We are not, and should not, be placed in front of the needy, the invalid, pensioners, education or health. However we should not let this government, which was elected with a good deal of support from our industry, forget our legacy to Australian cultural life. We should be in-line for when things turn for the better which brings me to the point of this article: the performance of the Labor government in respect of the cultural industries after nearly 18 months in government.

Patchy at best, is my analysis. At least we were never taken for granted with the previous government Apart from some bold resolutions at the 2020 summit, which other than for ABC3-Kids, had no detail attached to them, very little meaningful support has been directed at screen production. Frustrations in relation to the operation of the Producer Offset have been represented without any sense of the government wanting to fix the problems, in particular the timing of the tax acquittal. This latter issue may in the end be repaired by the ATO itself. Then there is the lack of action by government on the issue of broadcaster access to the PO. In the last drafting days of the PO legislation we learned that the Coalition was going to allow the broadcasters access to the scheme. This provoked a huge negative response from independent television producers. Not only does the Labor Government fail ...