CANBERRA, June 27 (Xinhua) -- Some of Australia's biggest screen stars have converged on the national capital to urge the federal government to save their industry from Netflix and other streaming giants.
Some 30 high-profile actors, writers and directors gathered at Parliament House on Tuesday to warn communications and arts minister Mitch Fifield the local screen industry could be destroyed by new delivery platforms.
They urged politicians from major parties to introduce quotas whereby the popular, on-demand platforms spend at least 10 percent of their programming on Australian content.
Currently, they are not required to spend any money on local shows, unlike the free-to-air networks which must meet local programming quotas, and pay TV, which must spend 10 percent of its programming on local drama.
"We're really at a precipice," said Richard Roxburgh, star of Australian legal drama Rake.
"It's a moment in time when the streaming giants, Netflix, Amazon, soon to be Disney, and Telstra and Stan, have no local content requirements.
"What they're doing in the rest of the world is sorting out some small impost so some of the huge earnings they're making are fed back into the local industry. That's why I'm here, to prosecute that idea."
Andrew Knight, veteran writer of many acclaimed Australian television series, including the Guy Pearce-starred Jack Irish, said the industry had never been under greater threat.
"I know audiences want to hear Australian stories," he said on ABC Online. "They want to hear the Australian patois and the way we think and the way we talk and it's never been under greater siege."
Veteran film and television actor Judy Davis, whose credits include the 1992 Woody Allen comedy Husbands and Wives, said:"I'm not saying every TV show Australia produces is brilliant, but my view is they will only get better.
"It is literally a moment in time where the Government of Australia can intercede with companies like Netflix and ensure there is a degree of local content."
Their lobbying efforts come in the wake of a new report by Deloitte Access Economics that reveals strong take-up of video on demand and an 8 percent decrease in the time people spent watching broadcast television in 2017.
Among Australians aged 25 to 34, that figure fell by 17 per cent.
