Actor Roy Billing.
Acting legend Roy Billing has launched a scathing attack on the MEAA's Save Our Stories campaign which seeks to prevent changes to the visa approval process for imported actors and crew.
This comes ahead of the release of the government's Review of Temporary Work (Entertainment) visa (Subclass 420), which was undertaken to reduce the burden and cost of unnecessary or inefficient regulation imposed on individuals, business and community organisations.
Billing said the union's Save Our Stories campaign was "disengenous".
"It is drawing a very long bow to claim that taking the union out of the visa application process will ruin the Australian film industry," he said.
"Australian stories and jobs are not under threat as government subsidised productions have to adhere to strictly enforced cultural guidelines."
Billing said one of the key components of the review, which started last year, was to seek opinions about compulsory union consultation into the visa application process for foreign performers.
"We are still waiting to hear the results of the review and to see whether legislation will be enacted to change the process of entertainment industry temporary visa applications, particularly in relation to the elimination of unnecessary and expensive union consultation.
"I understand the process was stalled because of leadership and ministerial changes but that new Federal Arts Minister, Mitch Fifield, was looking into the matter over the Parliamentary break.
"While it is widely assumed that the majority of the review’s submissions will favour deregulation, the actors’ union, MEAA, is not prepared to abide by the opinions of the majority and claim they have the numbers in the Senate to be able to have a successful Motion of Disallowance moved, negating any legislation that may come about as a result of the Review’s findings.
"I question MEAA's claim as I have had contact with a number of senators, including some of the cross bench, and their advisors. Many do not support the union’s stance."
According to February 2015 the Australian Screen Association survey, the screen sector in Australia supports 46,600 full time jobs.
MEAA has 5,040 actor members (including extras) and of those, (according to a recent union survey), 42 per cent earn under $10,000 per annum.
According to Billing, the rest, about 2400, represent about 5 per cent of the screen sector’s potential full time workers.
"Why should their union be able to make decisions that affect the livelihood of the other 95 per cent?" Billing said.
Billing has also taken umbrage at the fees charged by the MEAA in order for them to process foreign actor visa applications.
"I can’t find anything in the Migration Regulations, nor the current Guidelines relating to foreign actor visa applications, which says that MEAA can charge fees for a process they claim is protecting their own members," he said.
"The total fees for union consultation in the 2014 financial year amounted to $467,355 and $421,712 for the 2015 financial year.
Billing said many in the screen industry, who are familiar with the complexities of screen financing, realised that making it easier to bring in more overseas “name" actors, would encourage more private investment and result in more and bigger productions, hence more work for everyone including actors.
"In the meantime, according to a recent Screen Australia survey, private investment in subsidised screen production has halved over the last 10 years," he said.
"MEAA seem to be more concerned about collecting the fees from the compulsory consultation process than considering the possibility of increased work opportunities for their members.
"Let’s hope the government will release the findings of the review soon and enact legislation. If this happens let’s also hope that the Senate, as a whole, will have the common sense not to pass any Motion of Disallowance that would adversely affect the potential growth and sustainability of our screen sector."
MEAA chief executive Paul Murphy told IF The 420 visa regulation system had worked well for many years by balancing the needs of producers with the protection of Australian content and jobs.
"The regulations are based on the simple principle that Australian and overseas funded productions should endeavour to employ Australian cast and crew first," he said.
"This is an entirely reasonable proposition that has fostered Australian jobs and content for decades and there is no evidence that it has hindered the growth of the Australian film and TV industries.
He said some of the options put forward by the Government would bring about complete deregulation and could only result in lost opportunities for Australian performers, crew and directors.
"No evidence has been put forward that making these changes would benefit the local industry," he said.
"MEAA has consistently argued that this is a case of if it ain’t broken, why fix it, and our union’s number one concern has always been the preservation and creation of employment opportunities for Australian creative professionals.
"While the government has gone silent on the issue in recent months, we remain watchful and will continue to campaign to save our stories."