Anthony Albanese and Arts Minister Tony Burke sally forth with their National Cultural Policy today and it is unlikely to have much in the way of news for the Screen. What’s the scam?
The scam is that a Local Content Requirement is mooted for streaming giants Netflix, Amazon Prime and so forth but if it is based, as predicted, on a (say 10%) requirement to spend a percentage of their revenue on Australian content then it won’t be much at all. Netflix invoices its hundreds of millions in revenue straight offshore and books a paltry $30m in revenue to its Australian company in “service fees” from some foreign entity.
The government now goes into a six month “consultation period” with the streaming giants which means they will be furiously lobbying to skive out of paying for Australian content so Tony Burke and co could do worse than visiting the Tax Office to work out how to make these people book their income from Australian customers in Australia.
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Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.