WA Government under fire for outsourcing new Tourism WA campaign and for continued lack of policy on production dollars heading East
It’s been a long time coming, but the biggest local production issue finally blew up yesterday, with the Roger Cook Labor Government in Western Australia copping heat from all sides over the use of state taxpayers’ funds to commission Eastern States production companies for State Government department campaigns.
The awarding of Government campaigns to companies based in the Eastern States is not a new issue in Western Australia. It has been a bone of contention for the local production industry for decades. But with yesterday’s embarrassing publicity and backlash over the commissioning of Eastern States companies to handle the upcoming Tourism WA “Walking on a Dream” refresh campaign, it’s now possible that some form of Government policy may be introduced to limit the amount of government production work—and money—heading east.
The issue was first raised yesterday morning on ABC Radio’s Breakfast program with Mark Gibson. The ABC interviewed IN:WA board member Mark Braddock about his letter to Tourism WA, questioning why it was necessary to commission Eastern States production companies for the new Tourism WA campaign.
Long-time advocate for the local production industry, Mark Braddock, said on ABC Radio that five of the last eight major WA Government productions had been shot by Eastern States production companies—or had a significant proportion of the work handled outside Western Australia.
“For us, it’s all about keeping taxpayers’ money in the state and building our production ecosystem to support the Government’s policy commitments,” he told ABC Radio. “At the moment, our local production companies are really struggling. For us, it’s about maintaining those West Australian-owned and -run businesses. They’re our biggest client in the state, and they’ve made a commitment to supporting local—we’d just like to see that policy align with practice.”
Following the ABC interview, the story was picked up by most of Perth’s major print and TV news organisations. A few examples:
The NationalsWA also issued a PR release “Cook Labor Government fails to back WA Creatives in Flagship Tourism Campaign”, however this has now been removed from their website.
Deputy Liberal Leader Libby Mettam was also critical, saying the Government wasn’t listening to its own Made in WA message from the recent election.
Mettam said: “This program was meant to be about selling a message about backing Western Australia—and yet the Premier isn’t. It’s extraordinary hypocrisy. The fact that they are looking outside WA to sell this important message highlights that the Premier is not listening to his own message and is not backing the expertise that we have here in this state.”
Premier Roger Cook has said he is disappointed in the decision. When asked, he commented: “It’s pretty disappointing, right? And we know that in WA, we’ve got some great production crews, and I’m sure that work could have been undertaken in Western Australia.”
This is an emotional issue for the Perth production industry, which has for decades felt let down by State Government departments approving agency productions where most of the key crew come from the Eastern States.
It’s also an issue that successive State Governments have long been aware of. But a lack of clear policy direction on Government production spending lies at the heart of the problem. This lack of regulation—combined with the Government’s own Made in WA commitment—has created the current embarrassment.
The Brand Agency, Perth and its client, Tourism WA, are currently under instructions not to comment. However, following the original big-budget “Walking on a Dream” campaign in September 2022—produced by an Eastern States company—it’s perhaps not surprising that the follow-up campaign also involves interstate production partners.
The 2022 “Walking on a Dream” campaign was directed by a European-based director. Post-production was done by Prague-based company, and music by a Sydney-based studio. Many other specialists were also from the east or overseas, including the DOP, Executive Producer, Steadicam operator, VFX Supervisor, GFX Animator, Offline Editor, and Choreographer.
The original Campaign Brief WA story received 75 comments, with several critical of a major Tourism WA job being awarded to an Eastern States company.
Ironically, Roger Cook—then WA’s Deputy Premier and Minister for Tourism—was quoted in the September 6, 2022 story, when he launched that campaign.
This new campaign has been awarded to a Sydney-based company, who, it should be noted, are one of Australia’s premier and most awarded and respected production companies.
Despite stating being disappointed in the choice of an eastern states production company, The Premier in his comments has been quick to add that the job will have “at least 70 per cent West Australian crew members and other local businesses involved”. While this is probably correct, it does not represent a true picture of the production budget spend on the campaign. The vast majority of fees are naturally to the production company, the director, cinematographer, executive producer, the post production company and operators, plus other eastern states crew brought in for the production.
Read more on the Campaign Brief WA site.