Tim Blair

If not for Blue Heelers, Neighbours etc, all the cretins who currently watch this tripe would have nothing to do; they would either venture out and clog the roads and malls, or even more daunting, stay home and breed.
Just think of all the extra work for emergency services as well- having to extract their hydrocephalic heads form fence railings and treating them for burns after sticking their tongues into light sockets- we can't afford for these people to be left to their own devices.

Australian actors don't act, they pull faces. You can watch an Australian drama with the sound down and you won't miss a thing, except the bad script.

Imagine the uproar there would be if the yanks tried to ban "our" Nicole and "our" Russell from Hollywood.

"I mean, they're just not something that can be negotiated in any degree whatsoever, because the fact of the matter is, I don't think we would have… we almost wouldn't have an industry if we didn't have the regulations we have and I wouldn't have a job" And this woman wants to be a Director? Learn clear expression first, worry about being paid to play dress-ups and pretend later.

This is just the film industry we're talking about, right? What are the current protections for the Aussie film industry, or are they just subsidies for Aussie films that would be discontinued under a FT agreement?

The last "real" Aussie film I saw was "Lantana", which was a really good movie, but I finally had to ask an Australian what the hell Lantana meant. More typical Australian Naming Rules. (If you've seen the movie, you'll understand). It's a weedy bush plant, probably poisonous and sentient considering it's country of origin.

I can't work out our 'artists' (I use that term very loosely). One minute they like foreigners the next minute they don't like them. If boat people were all trained actors I wonder what Claudia and co would think of them.

You can train actors?

Can you get them to do tricks?

At least she didn't do a Tom Keneally and say 'art is priceless, something that cannot be expressed in monetary values... which is why all actors should be paid more'.
At any rate, it'll be a long time before Australia's film and television industry is well and truly free of regulations - the unpopular, government funded ABC and SBS need it to survive.

But Tim, what about our Culcha? If it wasn't for those government subsidies and the protection then I wouldn't know how to be an aussie anymore. Gosh darn it! See, I'm turning into a damn yank already.

Myth: Actors are a valuable export commodity that enriches the country financially and culturally.

Fact: Actors are minstrals and jesters that exist only to amuse and who's unsolicited opinion on anything (especially if it is a regurgitation of shit peddled by the Refugee Action Coalition) is about as welcome as cancer.

Maybe Claudia's just pissed because her small role as Natalie Portman's sister in Star Wars - Attack of the Clones wound up on the cutting room floor. Check out the DVD for deleted scenes.

"What are the current protections for the Aussie film industry, or are they just subsidies for Aussie films that would be discontinued under a FT agreement?"

The arrangements that I'm aware of are:

(a) Australian content rules for commercial broadcasters;
(b) tax breaks for Australian content (Divisions 10B and 10BA of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1936);
(c) co-production treaties with a variety of countries (including Canada, UK, Ireland) which can qualify under (b) and (c); and
(d) visa restrictions on offshore actors (ie discretion as to whether to allow them to work as actors while in Australia).

"(c) co-production treaties with a variety of countries (including Canada..."

An Australian-Canadian co-production. Jeez, at least I know what awaits me in hell if I don't change my ways.

If Claudia is short of work I'd give her a job, but I reckon my wife would be pretty pissed off.

I'd rather get a job from Claudia.

Spot on Gilly, how about those wankers Heath Leader et al and their little "anti-what? Oh yeah, it's anti-war this week" protest a little while back. Now *that* had a lot of effect.

This is what happens when egotists get paid to be looked at.

Claudia needs a lesson from Les Patterson, Minister for the Yarts.

I'm sure he'd be happy to show her his huge portfolio.

Remeber it well Jake.

I vowed never to watch a movie with Ledger or Edgerton again after seeing that crap - not that that represents a great personal sacrifice.

Seems kind of appropriate that they both appear in a movie playing cop killing bank robbing Irishmen. Just the type of people you expect at an anti-war protest in this day and age.

The current regulation and subsidsing of our television and film industries is holding back the development of what could be a industry that could compete with Hollywood, we have the talent and resources to create a film industry that could rival Hollywood. Only if our political leaders were willing to withdraw subsides and quotas for 'cultural content'.

Gilly, you'd boycott an entire movie because one of the actors was anti-war?

That's just silly.....

I dunno, I like a lot of Aussie movies and actors. But isn't Anthony LaPaglia a Yank? Oh and Paul Cox is Dutch, am I right? Hmm.
Anyway, Culcha subsidies haven't mucked up Oz films like they have British ones. As was rightly pointed out, Sir Les is the true patron saint of Aussie culcha.

There's an Australian culture? When did it start?

Actually two of the actors, but why split hairs.

And not because they are anti-war, because they are vacuous minstrals. If I tried to watch the movie the sight of their unshaven beanie clad head and the well thought out statement of "Howards a dickhead" would kept popping into my head. This of course would ruin any semblance of enjoyment and satisfaction I would get from watching a simulated Ned Kelly hang by the neck until he is dead.

The only reason Howard is a dickhead is because his government gives money to these fools to make movies people dont want to watch.

To Mork- an Australian culture started over 200 years ago, and penicillin has failed to wipe it out. However Balmain Bolsheviks and Toorak Trotskyites are doing a very good job to get a result that antibiotics couldn't.
Vale' the panelvan.

Whatever happened to that nice Paul Hogan?

"G'day, Mite!"

Ha ha, we Americans love Australian actors!

Someone remind me why we spend millions of taxpayers' money training actors to work in an industry with a ~90% unemployment rate, and then spend counless millions more subsidising crap films and crap public sector broadcasters hardly anybody wants to watch in order to employ them? Just think how competitive we could be if we didn't waste money and divert otherwise useful resources. We should be forcing the preening wankers who want a career in the arts to pay a wanker tax in recognition of their commitment to spend a lifetime stealing dole payments.

Did I see mention of competitive economics in the same sentence as an extra tax?

Clem - if there was a "wanker tax", your accountant (or anyone else) would be telling you that you'd be paying the highest bracket.

Yes, Jon, you did. It's called "user pays". You know, the opoposite of "someone else works hard to pay for my pretentiousness and stupid fantasies of megastardom". The opposite of "one person gets something for nothing because someone else got nothing for something." Leftists think the latter constitutes social justice for some reason I've never understood.