2010 AUSTRALIAN WRITERS GUILD AGM - PRESIDENT'S REPORT

9 June, 2010

The report below was given by AWG President Tim Pye at the 2010 Australian Writers' Guild Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 27 May 2010.Thanks for coming. Firstly, I’d like to offer sincere thanks to three National Executive Councillors who are stepping down from the NEC this year – Verity Laughton from NSW, Sally McKenzie from Queensland and Sarah Rossetti from West Australia. It’s been my great pleasure to serve on the board with these three women over the last few years (in sally’s case, eight years) and they have acquitted themselves with diligence and professionalism. They have also been staunch, vocal advocates for the members in their states and their respective writing disciplines. On behalf of the NEC, thanks to you all.And a big welcome to Kate Rice who joins the NEC for the first time as the representative from WA.The AWG has gone from strength to strength over the last twelve months. The most reliable barometer of this strength has always been the growth in membership and this year we’ve reached the highest membership numbers in the guild’s history. And the trend remains upward.Reference to this membership growth can’t pass without mention of the fantastic work by the Victorian branch. They – and specifically the Victorian Committee – have done great things in generating activity and interest in the guild. We currently have 215 full members in Victoria, this is up about 10% in twelve months and this has triggered the election of an extra rep from Victoria on the National Executive Council. The monthly meetings upstairs at Errol’s in North Melbourne attract between 50 and 100 people and the committee have secured further funding from Film Vic for these meetings. They are also sponsoring prizes at the St. Kilda film festival and Melbourne Film Festival. So thanks and congratulations Mark Poole,Peter Moon and the rest of the Victorian committee. There’s no doubt that our strong membership growth is the direct result of the guild having delivered on its core business. In broad strokes, this core business breaks down into three main areas of activity – Industrial Advocacy, Professional Development and Events…and Industry Policy.I’ve always believed that the most important of these is industrial advocacy – engaging in the ongoing fight for better pay and conditions for writers. This is the Guild’s bread and butter and goes to the very heart of why we exist. In this area, we’ve made huge strides in the last twelve months, building effectively on the achievements of the past three years. At last year’s AGM, I reported that – in addition to the renegotiation of the TV Series And Serial Agreement – the guild was actively working on agreements covering the writing of Mini Series and Telemovies,Feature Films and Children’s Television. One year on, I’m pleased to report that two out of three of these agreements are now in place.The first ever Mini Series and Telemovie Agreement (MATA) was successfully struck by our negotiating team and SPAA at the end of last year. It was a tough business, with raised voices and the occasional swear word uttered in irritation, much like all such negotiations. But we got there. It was a great result for us and I would like to offer thanks to my colleagues on the negotiating team – Mac Gudgeon, Keith Thompson, Katherine Thomson and the committee chair, John Doyle. I would also like to pay tribute to the SPAA negotiating team who approached these dealings in true good faith and helped to create a genuine sense of mutual respect across the table.The guild’s Feature Film committee has developed a Feature Film writing agreement which is fast becoming the industry standard. To have achieved this in less than a year is remarkable. Bi-lateral agreements are now in place with some of the country’s biggest producers and production houses including Jan Chapman, Animal Logic, Omnilab and Igloo Films…and more will follow. So, a big vote of thanks is due to the committee – Jan Sardi, Mac Gudgeon, Roger Simpson, John Collee, Craig Pearce and David Williamson.Negotiations with SPAA on a new Children’s Television writing agreement has been predictably (and annoyingly) more problematic. Without going into the detail, it’s fair to say that the approach taken to these negotiations by the SPAA negotiating team unlike their colleagues on the MATA team) has been very unhelpful. Nevertheless, progress has been made and we will shortly be entering into an industrial mediation with a mutually agreed mediator and we’re hopeful that the obvious strength of our case will lead ultimately to an agreement being struck. The bottom line on those kids TV negotiations is this – when it comes to the writing of children’s television in Australia, writers are very badly exploited, disrespected and appallingly underpaid.But with more than 95% of all Australian children’s television writers being guild members, we only need to harness our common sense of purpose and solidarity…and we will win. Many thanks to Kym Goldsworthy, Gina Roncoli and the rest of the committee for their ongoing dedication to the cause.In the last twelve months, the guild has also developed a new Theatre Industry Agreement in concert with Playwriting Australia, Hothouse and all the major performing arts theatres. Among other things, this new agreement will see an increase in the minimum commissioning fee – from $10K to $12.5K – and secured protection from exploitation in competitions being run by theatre companies. So thanks to the theatre committee – Verity Laughton, Errol O’Neill, Katherine Thomson, Suzie Miller, Andrew Bovell and David Williamson.In all these industrial battles, I would also like to acknowledge the brilliant work of our Industrial and Policy officer, Angela Keefe. There is no doubt that since Angela joined us fifteen months ago, the AWG has kicked some serious goals…and some behinds. Angela, you are a star.The core business of Professional Development and Events is the stuff which gets the guild noticed and is designed to raise the status and profile of writers generally. In these endeavours, the guild has been incredibly active and successful over the last twelve months. So active, in fact, that the simplest way to detail the achievements is in dot point form:• We have committed to holding the next National Screenwriters Conference on Phillip Island, Victoria, next February.• A substantial portion of the funding required for the conference has been found.• We’ve secured funding from Screen Australia to run a Script Assessment Training Program• Our partnership with Foxtel continues and, once again, we’ll be offering the $25k Foxtel Fellowship to one of our members, organising the Foxtel Address and continuing the Oral History project, in which older guild members are interviewed and their insights preserved in the National Film and Sound Archive.• The $30K Kit Denton fellowship for courage in writing will be awarded once again at the AWGIEs.• The NSW Mentorship Program is successfully up and running and we have secured funding for the Victorian Mentorship Program which will commence in July.• We’ve continued our partnership with INSCRIPTION which has resulted in the Rom Com script competition, co-operation on the recent Will Eno tour and upcoming Australian tour by Edward Albee.• We’ve developed plans for a contract negotiation and residual service which we will soon launch publicly after its current trial period.• We’re deep into preparations for the AWGIE awards which will be held in Melbourne in August. We have received the largest number of entries ever and will be giving away over $80K in cash prizes attached to the awards, fellowships and scholarships.• We’ve launched the new AWG website.• We’ve put our new data base into active service, vastly reducing administration time in the national office and freeing up that time for the prosecution of core business.And those are just the big-ticket items.The third plank of the guild’s core business is Industry Policy. This is the stuff which is often invisible and is always time consuming because it involves tracking the policies of government and funding bodies, assessing how they policies affect writers, then lobbying and writing submissions to influence them. Although there’s been a number of policy developments in the last year, there are two I would like to mention specifically.First, the draft Screen Australia development funding guidelines, which came out last year. In those guidelines, writers were unable to apply for direct project funding unless their project had a producer attached and/or unless they had a threshold of three feature film, mini series or telemovie credits. (Producers, naturally enough, did not need to meet such stringent criteria.)But, after much lobbying, email writing and phone calling, we successfully had the guidelines changed to include series television writing. This means that many, many more writers can now apply for direct development funding without a producer.The second development is long-term and far reaching. It relates to current trade talks between Australia, the US and at least six other Asian and South American countries whose aim is the establishment of an Asia-Pacific free-trade zone. The most worrying element of these negotiations is the clearly stated position of the American Producers Association that any such free-trade zone should aim to remove local content protection for film and television industries. Anyone who followed the last bi-lateral free-trade talks between Australia and the USA will know that this outcome would override the existing policy. It is a grave threat to our film and television industries and we are already engaging with the federal government, trying to educate them and their negotiators in the ways of international trade negotiations,and especially how they can affect audio-visual products and services. I believe we have a considerable amount of educating to do.In closing, I would like to give a huge vote of thanks to our magnificent staff who make all of this possible:Louisa CarlinLindy CrozierNatasha FergusonTahlin HigginsKaren JohnsonMiriam KatsambisTinzar LwynAlan PayneBrad TaylorTanya TaylorTracy Yi LuAnd of course, Peter Walford, whose vital work keeps the AWG financially viable.And finally, our extraordinary Executive Director, Jacqueline Woodman. After working with Jacqueline for three years, I am still delighted and amazed by her energy, determination, strategic thinking and the wisdom of her counsel. I’ve said it before and will do so again – we are very, very lucky to have her.Thank you.Tim Pye – 27 May 2010PresidentAustralian Writers’ Guild