Last week the Environment and Communications References Committee released its report into the state of the Australian games industry, along with a set of recommendations as to what the government can do to support it. Senator Scott Ludlam is a vocal proponent of the local scene, and one of the driving forces behind last year's senate inquiry.
We caught up with him at the end of a very busy day to find out... what happens next?
I can imagine a lot of our readers aren’t that familiar with senate inquiry procedures, so I guess a good place to start would be… where does this go next? Is the government bound to any of these recommendations?
The government isn’t bound to the recommendations, but both the Liberal and Labor Senators on the committee signed on to the report, so we can be optimistic that they’ll be open to implementing them in the next term of government. The various proposals still need to be legislated, and paid for, so they’re subject to the same pressures and fragility as any other proposal. What the consensus report does show is that there is interest on all sides of politics if it becomes a priority. That’s where the gaming community can come in – making it a priority, directing their political support to the party that will best represent their wishes alongside other concerns. I certainly hope that we’ve done a good job of that.
You called out The Arcade in Melbourne – which is a really inspiring place – as a good example of who the industry can work together. What are the advantages of that kind of arrangement?
Aside from the usual economies of scale, there’s a free flow of ideas and inspiration that benefits from proximity. There’s healthy competition. There’s a collective capacity to see that the industry’s strength continues to grow.
More than a few observers have found that greater diversity can improve any industry’s output – how would that be managed in the case of the local games industry?
Making some government support contingent on some diversity outcomes is a useful lever to entice companies to expand their hiring practices, but it also has to start younger. Thousands of young gamers today no doubt have the ambition to be developers themselves one day. How welcoming to them is the industry being? Does the output of the industry suggest an environment that welcomes everyone? Do For years this community has tried to be taken seriously as an artistic and creative medium. Now it is. And art is an instrument of cultural change.
Over the past decade we’ve seen larger development houses close down in Australia, especially those attached to bigger overseas publishers. Is there a way to bring those jobs back? Or is the future of Australian development in indie studios and smaller, more agile development teams?
That’s a ‘why not both’ sort of question. Hollywood studios come to Australia with large projects in part because of the (absurdly generous) support from government. With the closure of the AIGF we saw the last pretence of any government welcome for the industry disappear. Well planned and implemented support schemes, like the grants, low-interest loans and tax offsets the report recommended, can jump start smaller companies and entice larger ones.
Lastly, do you think there’s a way to reconcile the large numbers of students studying development and related courses, and the relatively small size of our industry? Do you think the measures suggested in today’s report can grow the industry to a point that it can create more jobs for these graduates?
We certainly don’t have a lot of time to get this right. If Australia is going to establish itself as a global leader, we need to make sure that new talent stays here, and more established professionals mentor and develop that talent. If it goes well, it’ll happen in parallel; demand will grow, Australian developers will be rightly seen as among the best in the world, Australian developers will get more work both locally and from international clients, Australia will have a culture of excellence that encourages the most talented people to stay, and to expand that pool of talent.
You can find the full report here - and it is well worth your time having a look at.