South Australian Film Industry

Mr McBRIDE (MacKillop) (14:40): My question is to the Minister for Innovation and Skills. Can the minister update the house on how the Marshall Liberal government is supporting the South Australian economy by growing the screen industry?

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (14:40): I thank the member for MacKillop for his question. Of course, Storm Boy was twice shot in the member for MacKillop's own electorate. Our screen industry plays an important role in growing our state's economy. The screen sector contributes more than $120 million to the economy each year and employs around 1,200 people.

Our post-production, digital and visual effects rebate has seen the South Australian PDV expenditure grow to $66 million. Last month, we were the first to announce access to the PDV rebate to the game industry sector. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, the South Australian Film Corporation has led the way. The corporation played an important role in developing a new set of national working guidelines for COVID-19 safe screen production, which provide practical guidance and support to Australian screen businesses to enable production to resume.

We are looking forward to major new projects coming to South Australia: the new feature film, The Unknown Man is to start production and the resumption of production in Adelaide of the ABC comedy series, Aftertaste. These productions are likely to employ a couple of hundred people in South Australia, from tradies to artists to crew and support staff. The Morrison government's new $400 million federal location incentive is great news for our local crews, vendors and thriving PDV sector.

With international productions not only providing employment but also training and upskilling opportunities, we know that there is about $1 billion worth of productions either shut down or delayed around the world, all looking for new locations to continue their work, and South Australia is perfectly positioned to pitch for a share of this business. South Australia's success with Mortal Kombat will greatly assist us to make strong bids for this work and position our screen sector to strongly contribute to the economic recovery post-COVID in South Australia.

For every two jobs created in the screen industry, a third job is created in the economy: in hospitality, travel, accommodation and the trades. Major productions, including the state's biggest ever screen production, Mortal Kombat, which to date has employed over 800 South Australians, show the state's capacity to deliver. It has provided a strong pipeline of work to the entire South Australian screen sector, including significant work for our world-class post-production digital and visual effects (PDV) industry. There are still 180 people employed by Mortal Kombat in South Australia until October in post-production.

With South Australia one of the safest places in the world right now, and one of the first places in the world to resume production, and with a COVIDSafe plan, we are out of the box early to start production. South Australia's screen industry will help us come back stronger than before.