Australia’s screen industry craft guilds have decried the Federal Government’s abrupt decision to fold the Department of Communications and the Arts into a new super ministry, omitting the Arts, as an insult to the industry.
The Federal Government has announced a seven-year, $400 million incentive to attract film and television productions to Australia.
Financial support from the Federal Government for the hundreds of thousands of screen industry practitioners who lost their jobs during the pandemic could be imminent.
The ABC is being pressured by the Federal Government to ask staff to forgo for six months a 2 per cent pay rise which was due to come into effect in October.
The options paper being drafted by Screen Australia and the Australian Communications and Media Authority should set out funding mechanisms to support film and TV content, particularly for the most vulnerable sector, children's programming, while extending the kids quota to public broadcasters.
The next instalment in Marvel's 'Thor' franchise, 'Thor: Love and Thunder', helmed by Taika Waititi and set to star Chris Hemsworth and Natalie Portman, will be filmed at Fox Studios in Sydney.
Australia's largest production houses and a number of independent producers have asked Prime Minister Scott Morrison for urgent funding to help the industry get back on its feet.
Around 300 ABC staff will move from broadcaster's headquarters in Sydney's Ultimo to new facilities in Parramatta, including potentially those from within the Entertainment & Specialist division.