Wednesday, 18 June 2025

Ministers statements: creative industries

Colin BROOKS (Bundoora – Minister for Industry and Advanced Manufacturing, Minister for Creative Industries) (14:22): Everyone knows that Victoria is the creative state, the cultural capital of the country, whether it is the biggest ever ticketed art exhibition in Kusama, which just finished at the NGV; the next big thing, the French Impressionism exhibition, which is underway; LEGO Star Wars, which we have got on at the museum; the big winter arts festival Rising, which just completed its run; our iconic live music scene; extraordinary dance productions; or in regional Victoria, things like Frida Kahlo at the Bendigo gallery. And our screen sector keeps kicking goals, backed by $50 million in this year’s budget, and this is a smart investment because the screen sector returns an investment of $10 for every dollar invested.

The Allan Labor government’s investment in the world’s largest permanent volume screens at Docklands Studios has certainly seen plenty of action. A few months ago I visited the studios to see the filming of the movie War Machine with Alan Ritchson. War Machine is not a movie about the internals of the Victorian Liberal Party. I talked recently to Sarah Snook about the filming of her series All Her Fault. That is not about Moira. Most recently I visited to see a movie being filmed that is supporting around 100 Victorian businesses and 300 jobs and generating $24 million in the Victorian economy. It is called Play Dead. I will not give away the plot, but the lesson here for the Leader of the Opposition is: beware those who have been written off as threats. In politics, as in the screen sector – the member for Bulleen has left the chamber, but he should heed this – sequels are very risky and trilogies rarely ever work out.