The Australian Government has published the full documentation (which you can read in its entirety here) for its new National Cultural Policy, which it’s calling Revive, and includes plans to “change the trajectory of the creative sector and deliver new momentum to Australia’s arts, entertainment and cultural sector.”
The plan covers everything from supporting creators and the infrastructure of the creative sector, to introducing new legislation protecting and promoting First Nations art and culture, investing in local arts and art studies, growing the market for Australian music and also recognising the value in the digital games industry. Arts Minister, Tony Burke, officially launched the policy today in a livestreamed conference held in St Kilda.
Meet ‘REVIVE’.
This will be Australia’s Cultural Policy for the next five years. pic.twitter.com/3iWdIXUEht
— Tony Burke (@Tony_Burke) January 30, 2023
Of all of the incredibly exciting news for the arts sector in Australia, one such initiative will see the return of the government’s Interactive Games Fund, which was abolished in 2014. The returned fund will pump $12 million into the local industry via Screen Australia to support digital games developers and small-to-medium games studios. This comes alongside the recently-announced DGTO (Digital Games Tax Offset) which gives a 30 percent refundable tax offset to any company that spends above $500,000 on qualifying local development costs.
“All forms of storytellers now, whether it’s narrative, visual art, music, acting, are finding themselves jobs in the video game industry. Screen Australia, when you’ve got an industry expanding like this around the world, shouldn’t be left trying to check if there’s some spare change in the back of the lounge to fund this rapidly growing $4 billion sector,” Burke emphasised in his speech.
“So we’ll restore the Games Fund for Screen Australia that was abolished nearly 10 years ago.”
An investment of $12 million certainly feels like more of a small start than a giant leap for supporting the local games development scene in Australia, but it’s good news nonetheless and hopefully a sign of more to come for both games and the arts sector in general in future.
You can watch the full policy launch below:
