Screen Australia boss warns further government budget cuts could impact cash for projects
Screen Australia boss Graeme Mason has insisted a series of sweeping cuts announced yesterday have been designed to affect the structure of the organisation rather than the amount of funding it is able to give out to projects.
Speaking to Mumbrella today Mason, who took over as CEO of the publicly-funded body 12 months ago, said whilst the cuts which will save around $6m this year will not impact any screen projects “any future reductions would begin to hit programming”.
Yesterday the organisation announced it was shedding 12 staff and cutting support for training and marketing of projects in what Mason described as the agency “returning to our core business”.
Admitting some of the changes were already on his agenda Mason added: “This hasn’t been a knee-jerk reaction, we’ve had a look at how the business looks in two to five years, which is the period of time most people in this industry work to. Some of these things in a perfect world would not necessarily have happened, like laying off a lot of staff and moving us out of support for training, but we have to find savings.”The cuts have come after Screen Australia had $25m of funding cuts over four years handed down in May’s federal budget, with marketing support for projects one of the other areas to be scrapped.
Jackman Kidman Kurzel does not an Industry make. This is called the ‘or you got it, or you ain’t’ industry development policy. And by the way, if Screen Australia is a ‘cultural agency’ what has been its cultural legacy over the past twenty years? Bupkes!
Just read this article again and note that Mr Mason the Head of Screen Australia says “Australia’s screen stars are actually our most high profile export”. What else can he say when the films don’t rate a mention or turn a dollar. This agency is steadily and surely destroying our feature film industry.