The Federal government has cut the Location Offset’s minimum qualifying Australian production expenditure (QAPE) back to $15 million just months after raising it as part of a reformed package designed to attract more offshore production.
The initial decision in July raised the Location Offset to 30 per cent from 16.5 per cent, but also increased minimum QAPE to $20 million from $15 million.
However, the QAPE increase caused concern among local service providers to mid-sized US productions shooting in Australia.
“Screen Producers Australia (SPA) has previously highlighted how keeping this minimum expenditure threshold at $15 million permits a broader range of footloose projects to access support for filming in Australia,” SPA CEO Matthew Deaner said.
“This in turn, creates the opportunity for a greater diversity of Australian SMEs across the screen ecology to service these projects, stabilising Australian screen businesses of different sizes. This is welcomed as it creates balance, providing opportunities for smaller Australian screen businesses to participate in some of the service work being drawn to Australia.
“This assists in generating a more stable and balanced workflow across a year – particularly important to those businesses that make Australian content, which, given the current absence of a robust regulatory model, have become increasingly precarious enterprises to run.”
While the Location Offset is uncapped, the government has set aside an extra $4.2 million in 2026-27 and $1.1 million in 2027-28 to budget for the change.
The $15 million QAPE will be applied retrospectively to eligible productions that began principal photography or production on or after July 1, 2023.
SPA is also lobbying the government to remove the above-the-line expenditure cap in the Producer Offset and introduce streaming content quota regulation.
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