After more than a decade of lobbying by the film industry, streaming services will now be officially required by law to produce Australian content, with government-proposed legislation passing the Senate this evening.
Labor worked with the Green Party to pass the bill on the last parliamentary day of the year, and the Green Party negotiated a $50 million commitment from the ABC to Australian children’s programming and drama. The funding will be provided to ABC over a three-year period from 2026 to 2027.
The Communications Law Amendment (Australian Content Requirements for Subscription Video-on-Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025 is expected to be passed to the Governor-General with Royal Assent.
The bill follows continued lobbying from Screen Producers Australia (SPA), as well as key partners in the long-running Make It Australian campaign: the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), the Australian Writers Guild (AWG) and the Directors Guild of Australia.
Congressional passage of the bill comes amid mounting pressure from the United States, with The Australian and Financial Review reporting this week that Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and senior U.S. Trade Representative Jamison Greer expressed dissatisfaction with the bill in a closed-door meeting with Australia’s ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, last week.
In the long run up to the government’s policy proposals, the Film Institute and its local unit, the Australian and New Zealand Film Institute, frequently argued that imposing local content obligations on members would breach the free trade agreement between Australia and the US.
The bill would require streamers with more than one million subscribers to invest 10 per cent of their total Australian programming spend, or 7.5 per cent of their local revenue, in new local content across most major genres other than news, reality and sports. Platforms that meet the threshold are likely Netflix, Prime Video, Stan, Disney+, Paramount+, and Binge. Streamers can be fined up to 10 times their annual revenue if they don’t follow the rules.
Speaking on the bill’s passage, Arts Minister Tony Burke said Australians should never underestimate how important it is to see themselves on screen.
“It helps us understand ourselves and our neighbors better, and it helps the world understand us,” he said.
“Free-to-air TV and pay TV have Australian content requirements, but until now there was no guarantee that you could watch your home country’s stories on streaming services.
“Streaming services produce great programming, and this legislation brings Australian voices to the forefront. Now, no matter which remote you have, Australian stories will be at your fingertips.
“When I was growing up, there was a movie called Catch Candy that was filmed in a local shopping centre. Seeing my own neighborhood on screen was incredibly important to me. I want Australian kids to grow up seeing themselves on screen.”
Commenting on the new funding for the ABC, Green Party spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the funding was aimed at encouraging children to see themselves on screen.
“For decades, the ABC has been at the heart of Australian storytelling. By strengthening our ability to create more children’s and drama content, we’re ensuring that hearts continue to beat strong. Bluey, Bananas in Pajamas, Playschool and many other successful shows have entertained and educated children for decades, and this is a new chapter in quality children’s content that parents can trust,” she said.
“Homegrown content matters. It shapes the way children understand the world, gives them stories based on the Australian experience and keeps our creative industries thriving. The Green Party has campaigned for years for a quota of local content on streaming platforms to support Australian stories on screen, and I’m pleased to see this bill pass the Senate today.”
Although the streaming bill’s requirements are much lower than the 20% revenue-based model the industry has advocated for years, SPA hailed the bill’s passage as “a landmark day for Australian film storytelling”.
“We finally have a strong starting point for a regulatory framework that addresses the profound changes that digital streaming platforms have brought to industry trends and viewing habits,” said Matthew Diener, CEO of SPA.
“For more than a decade, our members through SPA have worked patiently and tirelessly together and with other parts of our industry to support the work needed to ensure that the streaming platforms that generate significant revenue from Australian subscribers can provide a consistent and ongoing contribution to our industry and audiences. This has also ensured that local Australian stories are entrenched in our increasingly dominant services.”
The passage of the bill was also hailed by the AWG as a turning point.
CEO Claire Pullen said: “This will give our members and the entire creative community more confidence in their careers and the industry they call home here.”
“Securing quotas for local content is an important step forward in leveling the playing field for streamers and broadcasters, and it serves as a strong reminder of what we have been constantly told: Australians want to see more Australian content on their screens.”
But Diener said the screen industry still needed further action from the government towards a sustainable future, as seen in the failure of the House of Commons amendment proposed by Thiel independents. Failed amendments proposed by Zali Stegall and Allegra Spender included genre subquotas and subgenre reporting requirements. A mechanism for streamers to prevent producer offsets from counting towards their spend. and trading conditions.
“I am pleased that another of these measures, an additional $50 million for ABC children’s and other content, was secured by Sen. Sarah Hanson-Young as part of the Senate negotiations to pass the streaming bill,” Diener said.
“While we rightly pause today to note and celebrate this significant achievement, SPA’s advocacy will continue with renewed energy in the months and years ahead. There are significant challenges to my ambition to make Australia’s screen production sector a global success.”
