The Senate passed legislation on Tuesday night which tightens the definition of documentaries following the brouhaha over the Foxtel series Lush House.
The legislation had earlier been approved by the House of Representatives and now awaits proclamation.
Produced by Essential Media and Entertainment, Lush House featured Sharon Lush as she advised families how to better manage their households and reduce stress.
The producers applied for the 20% producer offset for documentaries but were rejected by Screen Australia on the grounds that the program was not a documentary.
Essential successfully applied to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to have Screen Australia’s decision set aside in 2011.
Last year Screen Australia, encouraged by the Government, appealed the AAT’s ruling to the Full Federal Court, which found in favour of the AAT. The Court also found the term ‘documentary’ as used in the producer offset legislation is “uncertain, ambiguous and obscure.”
Subsequently the then the Arts Minister Simon Crean and Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury said they would define the term documentary in legislation, consistent with that used by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and before that by the Australian Broadcasting Authority when a quota was introduced requiring commercial broadcasters to air 20 hours of docs per year.
The government flagged that the amended definition would describe a qualifying doc as a "creative interpretation of actuality" and does not include an infotainment, lifestyle or magazine program.
The legislation will be back-dated to apply to projects that began principal photography on or after 1 July 2012.