Labor to look seriously into games industry rebate

PALGN News | If Labor is elected to government, of course...

Screen Play has reported that Senator Conroy, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, announced this morning that Labor would seriously review the Game Developers' Association of Australia's call for a 40% tax rebate to be extended to game developers after it was recently announced for Australia's film and television industries.

CEO of the GDAA Greg Bondar said in regards to the Senator’s announcement; “We have been trying for years to get the Australian government to listen to us and recognise the significant contribution that our industry makes to the Australian economy and the potential we have for substantial growth in our industry if we were to benefit from the same sort of rebate as is offered to the Australian film industry.”

“We are thrilled that Senator Conroy is prepared, should Labor be elected to government, to take the time to assess our industry and give sound consideration to our call for a rebate. This is a positive step forward for our industry.”

The President of GDAA, Tom Crago, called for the Australian government to reconsider extending the rebate to the video game industry after it was initially refused. “We want the Government to take another look. This is exactly the type of industry they should be supporting in that it is high growth, highly skilled and almost entirely export focused. We also think it’s about time they recognised the contribution that video games makes to the broader cultural landscape in Australia.”

“It really is time for our current government to ‘get with it’ and accept just how big this industry is globally,” said Bondar. “We have a chance to make a name for ourselves on the world stage and win significant business if they back our industry in the same way that governments in China, Canada, France and South Korea are doing. It’s time for them to get in the game.”

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70 Comments

Skiller

4 years ago

And that's how labor bought my vote

All the stupid liberal gov did is steal my money to spend on stuff I would pay not to have

Infested Jibbs

4 years ago

Labour is so full of ****, pretending that they will solve every lil problem everyone has.

'If elected, a labour government, unlike the liberals, would not rest until a big mac sold over the counter looks as good as the ones in the ads!'

People act like they've never been **** to before.'Look seriously into'?That's typical political spin for 'yeah, we'll look sideways at it in our lunchbreak sometime next century and establish a commitee to deduce the viability of conducting a report on the validity of such a move........'aka, we ain't doing crap.

Fly

4 years ago

Jibbs wrote

At least they're focusing on attempting to fix things, and in this case actually giving thought to something instead of "hey I played pong, this is ****!" or "OMG UNIONS! OMG ECONOMY! DANGER WILL ROBINSON!" *flails arms*

So while they may end up saying no to such a proposal as well they seem to be far more forthcoming with "yeah this guy said this, he got fired, we screwed up our bad" this time around. Either way I see it, Politicians are 90% full of it anyway so you take what sounds good and hope they at least deliver half of it.

B3NBO

4 years ago

While this would be great, there is no way I would ever vote labor.

Skiller

4 years ago

Jibbs wrote

Labour is so full of s***, pretending that they will solve every lil problem everyone has.

'If elected, a labour government, unlike the liberals, would not rest until a big mac sold over the counter looks as good as the ones in the ads!'

People act like they've never been **** to before.'Look seriously into'?That's typical political spin for 'yeah, we'll look sideways at it in our lunchbreak sometime next century and establish a commitee to deduce the viability of conducting a report on the validity of such a move........'aka, we ain't doing crap.

It's better than the liberal response* of "F**k off, I never played a game in my life, you aint getting the rebate and we're going to rub your nose in all the benefits the film industry gets that you dont

."

*with alot of artistic licence

Windburn

4 years ago

Skiller wrote

And that's how labor bought my vote

All the stupid liberal gov did is steal my money to spend on stuff I would pay not to have

You know guys, I know you're loathe to admit it, but do you really think the current government did *not* assess the gaming industry to determine who the rebate extends to?

All this is, is another election promise that is so easy to make in the hope of sucking in a few more voters. They make it sound like they're pro-gamers in their response, but in actual fact, they're just as likely to give the notion the flick too.

I'm really sick of all the crap we have to put up with in elections, and even worse when I consider how many people take 'promises' at face value, and don't deign to look any further beyond what they want to see.

Not accusing anyone in here of that, it's just an opinion I have in general of this labor surge lately. I can't understand how, when America's economy is in the **** so bad, we're willing to completely overhaul our experienced government and hand it over to a bunch of rookies. If there was a valid reason, then fine, but so far I have not heard one clear cut Labour argument for why we need a change.

We don't have a bad government, and my standard of living is peachy.

Klawrence

4 years ago

Luke Mitchell wrote

Labor to look seriously into games industry rebate by Luke

PALGN News: If Labor is elected to government, of course...

[View Article]

And ill "look seriously" into voting Labor.

Skiller

4 years ago

Windburn wrote

You know guys, I know you're loathe to admit it, but do you really think the current government did *not* assess the gaming industry to determine who the rebate extends to?

I expect they put the same amount of effort into assesing the games industry as they did the fastrail *upgrade* that cost x million dollars over budget and has only resulted in v-line *increasing* the time for me to get to work in the morning and home each night... when they don't have to use busses due to more work needing to be done.
Or that whole debacle over those new billion dollar planes that don't fly right.

If there was a choice between a monkey and a politician I'd vote the monkey because at least if there was a one in a million chance of them eventually getting something right

Windburn wrote

Not accusing anyone in here of that, it's just an opinion I have in general of this labor surge lately. I can't understand how, when America's economy is in the s*** so bad, we're willing to completely overhaul our experienced government and hand it over to a bunch of rookies. If there was a valid reason, then fine, but so far I have not heard one clear cut Labour argument for why we need a change.

We don't have a bad government, and my standard of living is peachy.

Personally I'd prefer to vote liberal, but every time I decide to do so they announce something new that I really hate, at least labor hasn't (AFAIK) said anything that really gives me the s**ts. I like my AWA, I don't see anything wrong with it and would like to avoid the hassle of getting rid of it but things like MORE money for pensioners just piss me off too much.

Sin Ogaris

4 years ago

Yeah, damn old people mooching off the Government, they should be living in homes like the animals they are! Should abolish student funding as well, why should students get Centrelink, all they're doing is studying, pfft, they should get a job.

legend166

4 years ago

I'm still not actually sure why they think they deserve a rebate in the first place.

SoxyRob

4 years ago

Skiller wrote

...but things like MORE money for pensioners just piss me off too much.

lol
but pensioners need money from the government so that they can play more pokies and send the money straight back to the government, and also some of it goes into redesigning fancy pubs with overpriced drinks.... or is that just stereotyping old people... and pubs?

Windburn

4 years ago

Skiller wrote

Heh, you mean politicians aren't monkeys? News to me!
Guess what I'm saying is that Labour can make it sound very wonderful now, but don't expect them to put in any more effort into their "assessment" than what has already been done.

Trying not to derail the thread with my political view hehe, maybe we should start a "Great Debate" thread, or something along those lines.

Bitchacho

4 years ago

Oh great, just what we need. A political discussion on the internet.

*Does not read anything on this page. I am typing this with my eyes closed*

ugh the boot

4 years ago

I say....if it ain't broke don't fix it.

Dave Carter

4 years ago

I like the last comment.

Quote

It’s time for them to get in the game

Marlor

4 years ago

I think this is a good thing.

Of course, Senator Conroy can't unilaterally commit to establishing the games industry rebate. It would have to be approved by the cabinet first.

A promise that he will "look seriously into" the issue is about as good as we can reasonably expect, and it at least proves that they are aware of the issue, and aren't just ignoring it like the current Government.

arbok

4 years ago

Jibbs wrote

I have to agree with this, Labour just had so many promises in their debate last night and with no hint of economic analysis as to who would foot the bill for it all. Childcare support? Computer plans? Climate Change?

I definitely want greenhouse emissions lowered but to commit to something BEFORE a cost analysis is completed is short sighted. Its like buying a car or a house without knowing how much it costs. Like John Howard said last night you need to have a strong economic foundation in the country to do the things you want.

So to bring it back to games - its nice to have a 40% off rebate in games and games will come down from 99.95 to 59.95, but we're going to have to pay the costs somewhere else.

ObsoletE

4 years ago

arbok wrote

So to bring it back to games - its nice to have a 40% off rebate in games and games will come down from 99.95 to 59.95, but we're going to have to pay the costs somewhere else.

we aren't getting the rebate, developers are, from their taxes.

it'll make little, to no difference to the consumers, but would hopefully entice developers to move to Australia, creating jobs.

Marka

4 years ago

Look into may also mean "Pretend to care"

tootie_kicks

4 years ago

arbok wrote

So raping the population of more than $17 BILLION and not actually using it to further Australia is a good thing? The government either shouldn't have taken it in the first place, or should invest it back into Austalia. At least it looks like Labour is going to do something with this giant surplus other than have it sitting there and wheeling it out occasionally to say 'we're good managers of the economy because we have a giant surplus'.

At least Labour says they'll look into extending the rebate to the game industry, as opposed to the Government's outright refusal.

Annihilation

4 years ago

there is no way our economy would be this strong if those Labour Unionists were in charge

no offense, i want Liberal to get some rebate for developers, but ill be saying "No" to Rudd

arbok

4 years ago

ObsoletE wrote

arbok wrote

So to bring it back to games - its nice to have a 40% off rebate in games and games will come down from 99.95 to 59.95, but we're going to have to pay the costs somewhere else.

we aren't getting the rebate, developers are, from their taxes.

it'll make little, to no difference to the consumers, but would hopefully entice developers to move to Australia, creating jobs.

thanks for the correction - i guess you can leave that out of my argument then. I got mixed up with something else I heard.

which was that we are paying 40% tax on our games and thats why our games are so much more expensive than the American versions. The thing is the film and dvd and book industry are exempt from this 40% tax but not video games.

arbok

4 years ago

tootie_kicks wrote

Tootie - from the debate I got the impression that Labour were handing out funds at their choosing, whereas the libs were saying to everybody here's $600 - spend it how you will.

Passa

4 years ago

tootie_kicks, do realise that the government doesn't keep 17 billion surplus just so they have fistfuls of money to throw around after another day in parliament house.

Plus I think the 34bn handout rectifies this situation. Better than Rudd's handout anyway (which screams of 'oh me too, me too!')

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