Comments on: Using trade protection to promote local culture

By: conrad

conrad — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:28:54 +0000

“I am reasonably impressed by Aussie movies – they include some of the best I have seen over the past couple of decades”
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Look, I’m happy to have a local film industry too. But whether subsidizing them does any good you can judge for yourself here:

http://www.afc.gov.au/funding/approvals.aspx

Try having a look at the big ticket items between, say, 2001-2007, and see whether you even know any of them (for some reason, more come up if you use smaller dates, e.g. 2006-7). If you feel enthusiastic, have a look at some of the ratings on the review sites.

By: Uncle Milton

Uncle Milton — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 02:52:46 +0000

The PC did the cause no favours by its use of clumsy language like “cultural externalities” to describe the national benefits from supporting local writers. It made them look like philistine economists who have no appreciation of cultural values. Unfortunately, this might actually be true.

The government will go to water on this. The tell-tale sign is that the most economically literate member of Cabinet, Lindsay Tanner, is waivering. Of course he knows perfectly well that import resgrictions on books are a pernicious nonsense, but he has an inner city electorate with a thin margin against the Greens to defend.

Mind you, I haven’t seen the Opposition say that the restrictions should be lifted either.

I’m all in favour of Australian writers. I’ve just finished Tsiolkas’ The Slap and thought it was terrific. Kate Grenville is one of my favourite authors. But it I also like to read to books written by people from other countries. Yes. I can buy them on Amazon at less than the local price but the freight is expensive. Local writers should be supported by the tax payers not book buyers.

By: hc

hc — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:47:23 +0000

I am reasonably impressed by Aussie movies - they include some of the best I have seen over the past couple of decades. I thought Australia the movie was poor but some of the lighter movies (e.g. Strictly Ballroom, The Castle) I thought were entertaining. And movies such as Gallipoli I thought were excellent drama. I think we should have a local movie culture and not one that is primarily derived from Hollywood. My point is that grants that are exposed to public debate (a debate that would include your negative views) is a better way of going than trade-based restrictions.

By: conrad

conrad — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:49:03 +0000

“It is desirable to promote Australian content in books and in media, such as movies and TV shows,”
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You must be joking for movies. It seems that 99% of Australian movies follow the same old boring formula: white-trash man does good or cultural cringe light comedy. Very occasionally we get some Aboriginal film. No doubt the grant system is rigged to give money to the same old group of boring directors. Perhaps if they made films people liked to watch, we wouldn’t have to subsidize them.
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Of course, the whole idea of restricting what you read or watch in the world of ebay and BitTorrent just shows you how far behind the government is in its understanding. I personally can’t think of the last book I bought from a normal store — I just type the name into ebay, buy the book (generally second hand but in perfect condition – usually from overseas), and presto, it’s delivered to my doorstep in a few days at 20% of the Australian sticker price without tax. If its a book that isn’t on ebay, then I just get it from one of the OS online distributors. Again, problem of tax solved. This is the new parallel importing, which is unstoppable.

By: Harry Clarke » Using trade protection to promote local culture

Harry Clarke » Using trade protection to promote local culture — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:44:12 +0000

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