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Vic govt minister to question Struggle Street funding with Film Vic

SBS series is filming in Broadmeadows & Sunshine and now state govt weighs in.

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Victorian Housing and Creative Industries Minister Martin Foley will raise concerns with Film Victoria over SBS series Struggle Street which began filming in Sunshine and Broadmeadows last week.

“I have great concerns that this show displays an objectification of poverty and disadvantage,” he told Fairfax.

The series receives funding through Film Victoria but CEO Jenni Tosi has not confirmed the amount.

“Specific funding details are generally not announced for individual projects, as they are considered to be commercially sensitive and therefore treated as confidential,” she said.

While council permits are required for large productions, entertainment lawyer Shaun Miller said smaller units, such as single cameras with one or two crew, may not need a permit.

A spokeswoman for Brimbank City Council said Struggle Street does not have approval to film, with the possibility of prosecution penalties commencing at $1000.

Filming permits have also been knocked back by Hume Council while Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk have both snubbed the series filming in Brisbane.

Brimbank council chair of administrators John Watson has previously said the council was “extremely disappointed” Film Victoria and Screen Australia were funding the program.

SBS recently said in a statement the series intended to shine a light on social and economic disadvantage.

One Response

  1. What are these Councils trying to hide? Perhaps like in the Illawarra where Councils can fund a new fleet of top-line Holden Calais but can’t fund projects like “Share the Dignity”.
    (Illawarra Mercury) “Dawn Andersen knows what it’s like to have to choose between buying tampons for herself – or food for her children. Like many women who have experienced homelessness, Ms Andersen would go without her monthly sanitary needs to feed her four young daughters. Now that she’s back on her feet, the Wollongong-based woman is using her experience to help others by running the state branch of a national charity which distributes pads and tampons to women in need”.
    Good on SBS for shining the spotlight on the “poverty and disadvantage” in our communities that clearly Councils, and government bureaucrats, don’t want to see exposed.

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