quarterly - talentpayadvertisers ignoring a significant portion of the market do so at their peril...

Showcasing Diversity The Equity Foundation Highlights a Wealth of Diverse Talent

Casting Asians and Other Ethnicities in AustraliaAdvertisers Ignoring a Significant Portion of the Market do so at their Peril

ADVERTISING . MARKETING . ENTERTAINMENTVOL 1. NO 27.

COMPLIANCE REVIEWQUARTERLY

A TALENTPAY PUBLICATION

A study commissioned by Screen Australia on diversity on Australian screens between 2011 and 2015, confirmed that while Australians from non-European backgrounds make up 17% of the wider population, only 7% of TV drama roles can be broadly categorised as such. Similarly, people with disabilities make up 18% of the population but only 4% of characters. There is also an under-representation of LGBTQI characters (5%) when compared to the Australian population (11%).

Partly in response to this report, The Equity Foundation held a Diversity Showcase event in July this year to discover and showcase emerging talent from diverse and minority backgrounds and expose them to decision makers in the industry, recognising it is those decision makers and influencers who ultimately decide what appears on our screens.

Established in 2002 as the professional development arm of Actors Equity, The Equity Foundation invests in programs

by brian geach

by Diane geach

Continued on page 6

Continued on page 5

IN THIS ISSUEFeatures

Showcasing Diversity 1Casting Asians and Other Ethnicities in Australia 1Random Notes from Singapore 3Crazy Rich Asians Reviewed 4Smoothing the Way for Child Employment 8ACCC Loses Patience with ACL Offenders 9

RegularsFrom the Editor 2The Local Eye 7The Global Eye 8Q&A 10

I am an ABC, (an Australian Born Chinese), the daughter of Chinese imm-igrants who came to Australia the 1950’s. My company Asia Look, has been in business for 25 years and I was one of the first agents to specialise in Asian talent in the Australian marketplace. We set the company up as we foresaw the potential increase in exposure for Asian talent on our media platforms, an inevitable response to

to assist performers and others in the entertainment industries to progress their skills through a stellar roster of workshops and masterclasses.

With over 500 applications received for the five day event which included workshops, rehearsals, professional development forums and panels and culminated in a one night showcase performance and presentation to industry decision makers, The Diversity Showcase was

Australia’s increased Asian immigration and the subsequent increase in the Asian demographic. We specialise in talent for the advertising industry but have also provided talent for feature films and theatre.

Over that twenty-five year period, Asian presence in the media has gone from Europeans appearing in the Asian equivalent of ‘black-face’ and from Asians

COMPLIANCE REVIEW 2 Vol 1 No 27.

On a recent trip to Singapore, I was surprised at the local reaction to the recently released film, ’Crazy Rich Asians’, arguably the first feature film set in modern times with an all-star Asian cast since ‘The Joy Luck Club’ in 1993. Singaporeans and Asians in the main have hailed this production as a milestone in the portrayal of Asians (and in particular Singaporeans). But not all voices have been quite so effusive in their praise, citing for example the paucity of other Asians apart from Chinese in the film’s narrative arc. More on this and other aspects of the production in the article ‘Crazy Rich Asians Reviewed’.

Asian casting in Australian is explored in Diane Geach’s article too, and as a second generation Chinese Australian and principal of Asia Look Talent and Model Management, Diane is ideally placed to reflect on that topic. Don’t miss “Casting Asians and Other Ethnicities in Australia’ in this edition of CRQ.

And speaking of diversity, we report on the recent Diversity Showcase held in July this year by The Equity Foundation, with a stated aim to discover and showcase emerging talent from diverse and minority backgrounds and to expose those participants to decision makers in the screen and entertainment industries. By all accounts, the five day event was a great success.

In ‘Random Notes from Singapore’ Greg Reilly a resident of Singapore for the last two years and CEO of Talentpay Holdings, gives his impressions of Singapore’s changed advertising landscape, in particular the contracting of talent and performers who appear in advertisers’ communications.

Compliance issues too are canvassed in this issue. Recent changes in Australian Consumer Law (ACL) are significant, a situation of particular relevance to Australian advertisers and marketers. In this issue too, Carly Constantinides highlights the NSW Children’s Guardian new online employment authority application system with hints to speed an already efficient process.

And of course this edition of CRQ includes our regular features. Of particular interest is a question in Q&A from a performer agent over the increasing requirement by advertisers for pre contracted talent to disclose past criminal or serious driving offences. The answer to this query may surprise.

As always we welcome and respect your feedback on any of our articles or indeed any article or input you may be moved to contribute. In the meantime though, enjoy this Spring edition of CRQ.

BRian Geach editor cRQ

From the Editor

© Talentpay Pty Ltd 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission of the copyright holder.ISSN : 2204-1850Website www.talentpay.com.auEmail [email protected] Brian GeachPublisher Greg ReillyDesign Debra Jackson

Compliance Review is published quarterly by Talentpay Pty Ltd

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Address all correspondence to: Compliance Review Quarterly Talentpay PO Box Q717 Queen Victoria BuildingNSW 1230 Australia Tel 8204 4700 Fax 8204 4750National Toll Free 1800 147 074Email [email protected] enquiries:[email protected] visit www.talentpay.com.au

Compliance Review is distributed to subscribers free of charge for education and information purposes.The information contained in this document is general only and should not be taken as legal or professional advice, which should be sought in specific cases.Any views expressed by contributors in this document are those of the individual author and are not held or endorsed by Talentpay.


bad portions of the range are significant in the Asian region. Inadequate usage rights descriptions, incomplete personal data, and missing signatures are a sample of the problems encountered. Contracts are usually retained in hard copy form, so the misplacing of contracts is also a problem.

A corollary of this contracting disfun-ction is the inadequate or in many cases total lack of monitoring of usage-rights. It is unusual to have a notification process, so media over-runs happen too often. The fiscal and reputational consequences of this contractual neglect can be severe.

Casting is a significant problem in Asia due to the huge number of people who describe themselves as performer agents but then switch roles to become a casting director, a producer, or even a director, if that’s what the person on the end of the

next phone call is seeking. In the dubious pursuit of commercial expediency, it is a situation fraught with conflicts of interest.

Because the agent/performer ratio is weighted towards agents, the practice of performer-hoarding is prevalent. By this I mean agents guard their registered talent to the point of often not sharing the performers personal detail with the agency or advertiser for fear of the agency dealing directly with that performer in the future. This means the hoarding of talent results in agencies and advertisers often not being able to access large pools of talent as some agents try to get their registered performers selected in the first instance rather than placing a casting call to other, wider distribution channels.

Despite advertisers appearing to set reasonable budgets for talent roles, a lack of transparency in the talent supply chain often means these funds are distributed to other stakeholders first, resulting in the talent ultimately receiving a much-reduced amount. For this reason, many talent or performers resort to using a different name to that given to their agent because if they deal directly with the agency, then they receive a much higher proportion of the client talent budget. This situation too is fraught with contractual danger.

It’s unusual to find an agency using a formal pre-casting brief when briefing production houses or casting directors, which is surprising as many good agencies in Europe, the USA, Australia and New Zealand use such a system. It ensures that all stakeholders in the casting process get the same messaging on issues such as profile, price and contract terms. Again, this is an issue of transparency or the lack thereof.

South East Asia is an amazing, vibrant and creative world. I had the benefit of responsibility for the Asia Pacific region in the early part of my advertising career, so I’ve travelled and done business in most of the markets in this part of the world. Singapore itself is a fantastic country and I am blessed to be living here and once again working in the region.

Random Notes from SingaporeThe Changing Face of Advertising in the Region

As CEO of Talentpay Holdings, I’ve been living in Singapore for over two years now, allowing me the opportunity to form some views on the advertising industry in this part of the world when compared to Australia and New Zealand.

One of the first things I noticed early in the piece is that Singaporeans, especially the young , are more wedded to their hand phones compared to Australians or New Zealanders. Recognising this, advertisers, especially those who operate in the retail or the direct-to-consumer space, are aggressively trying to communicate with those consumers via the ubiquitous small screen. The focus on loyalty programs is omnipresent.

When I say that the presence of cell phones was one of the first things I noticed, unfortunately the reverse is not true among the owners of those phones. In fact, nobody seemed to notice me. Walking the streets is a significant challenge, not only in Singapore but throughout Asia, as not only do you need to think for yourself, but you also must think for the streams of heads-bent pedestrians oblivious to your presence whilst you desperately attempt to avoid a collision and anticipate their direction changes.

However, brand advertiser’s intoxi-cation with the hand-held screen appears to be waning, much like other developed markets. Interestingly, advertisers are re-discovering the power of creativity and mass-broadcast.

Also of interest is the process of disassembly and reassembly of advertising agencies which appears to be more advanced in Singapore as agencies rush to make themselves more relevant to their clients’ needs. This has disrupted the traditional agency business model with many ex-agency staff on the streets or re-examining their career prospects

One area that I have particularly noticed is that of talent contracting of those per-formers who appear in advertisers’ and marketers’ communications, especially as it relates to television commercials, print, press and screen. Business practice in this area of contracting ranges from very good to very bad, which is probably much the same in all markets except the bad to very

by greg reiLLy

“ However, brand advertiser’s intoxication

with the hand-held screen appears to

be waning ”

GReG ReiLLY, is the ceO of Talentpay holdings

explicably called the film an ‘earnest romantic comedy’ with ‘witty dialogue’ and ‘opulent set pieces’. It went on to note that Asian audiences had waited decades to see themselves on-screen ‘in all their diversity’. But of course this conveniently ignores one of the film’s main shortcomings namely that the casting was not diverse enough, with Singapore (where the film was set) seemingly populated exclusively by Chinese with less than a nod to the rest of Singapore’s diverse and significant minority populations of Malays and Indians, not to mention the European diaspora. Kirstan Han, a writer based in Singapore noted that the film practiced ‘the same sort of erasure of ethnic minorities that Hollywood does with white people’.

Another Singaporean writer, Pooja Nansi, writing in Inkstone News, posited that ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ was a movie promoted as being unique for its Asian star power, but depended ‘on an unset-tling devaluation of actual Singaporeans’. Pointing out that the brief appearance of black or brown bodies only in roles of servitude, led her to wonder how the film could be seen as a turning point for Asian representation.

Further criticism centred on the casting process, with pundits noting that the casting did little to dispel the popular western notion that all Asians are Chinese, given that the Asian cast was drawn from the US, Britain, Argentina, The Philippines, Korea and Japan. All were of Asian or of mixed Asian/European heritage appearance and so apparently in this production, all are Chinese. It is however, a criticism of little merit in my view and starts to dangerously skirt the notions of cultural appropriation. Far better we judge the appropriateness of the casting decisions by how the film’s talent can convincingly portray their filmic characters.

Of more concern however is the prop-osition that ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is playing a part in banishing Asian stereotypes from our screens. In the face of this banal and shallow cinematographic offering, it is a somewhat risible argument. Replacing

Crazy Rich Asians ReviewedCinematic Candy at Best

However, for a film that has been variously described as ‘lifestyle porn’, ‘absurd bling’ or the result of the ‘Joy Luck Club’ meets the ‘Kardashians’, searching for deeper meaning is some-what problematic.

The film itself opens with a quote from Napoleon (‘Let China sleep for when she awakes she will shake the world’), a profundity that sits at odds with the film’s facile narrative. Here the plodding story is very familiar, populated by one dimensional characters and high-profile luxury product placement and little insight. Boy meets smart girl of modest means, girl finds out boy is very rich and struggles to find acceptance with his family, many tears and hand wringing, a break-up looms but they are tearfully reunited in the final scene as she attempts to return home to the US. There, I’ve spoiled it for you. Profound it is not. Successful it may be.

So why all the hype and the gushing reviews? Time Magazine itself in-

We don’t normally do film reviews here at CRQ, but when a film receives so much hype, seemingly with the hopes of the entire Asian population of the world metaphorically resting on its shoulders and controversies over the film’s casting and portrayal of Asians are to the fore, it’s a hard temptation to resist. ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ is such a film.

Billed as the first feature film in a contemporary setting with an all Asian cast since ‘The Joy Luck Club’ in 1993, ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ earned more than $48.7 million at the US box office during its opening week, more than covering its $42 million production costs. Strictly speaking though, citing the film’s unique provenance is a little misleading. As John MacDonald points out in the Australian Financial Review, ‘there are thousands of features made each year with all-Asian casts, it’s just that few of them find their way to western mainstream theatres’, a point well made.

In Diane Geach’s article in this edition of CRQ she remarks that ‘much has been said for instance at how ‘brave’ the producers of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ were to mandate an all Asian cast, a decision I suggest had more to do with appealing to the vast Chinese market and the Chinese diaspora than any notions of ‘bravery’. Ground-breaking in many aspects the film may be, but in the end it was a shrewd commercial decision made not without risk, but commercial all the same’. The reasons for its initial success in the US though have puzzled some observers. Whilst part of that success obviously is its appeal to the Asian diaspora, I suggest the attraction among mainstream US audiences rests with its somewhat exotic and vicarious appeal in much the same way the ‘Sex and the City’ franchise appealed to audiences with its notions of conspicuous consumption, product placement, glamourous life-styles and an arguable insight into ‘how the other half live’. ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ follows that well-worn path.

And so there is little doubt that the film will be a great box office success internationally if we judge the merits or success of this film on a purely financial basis.

“ Time Magazine itself inexplicably called the film

an ‘earnest romantic comedy’ with ‘witty dialogue’ ”

OPiniOn by brian geach


Continued on page 5

one set of stereotypes with others (old money Chinese, nouveau riche Chinese, wacky classmate, high-camp character, hard faced matriarch) hardly qualifies as banishing stereotype. The prop-osition here appears to be rich is good and deserving of merit in and of itself, whilst being poor or of modest means is so yesterday and deserving of condescension. It is a slightly uncom-fortable message.

If there’s a winner of sorts in this production, its actually Singapore which comes over as opulent, bright and shiny. It is, as my long-term old Asia hand mate says,”Asia for beginners”. Everything works, it’s safe and ordered and is not without its own charm. It is perhaps not quite the party town that appears in the film, but hey, a little bit of licence does no harm unless you were thinking Phuket.

This is a lightweight offering from a director who’s previous works includes a documentary on Justin Beiber. It treads a well-worn narrative and does so effectively. It’s cinema candy; sweet in itself but not all that good for you if you consume too much. To inculcate it with tropes of deep insight and meaningfulness does it a disservice and is unfair. It is what it is; an entertaining bit of filmic flim-flam and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. But let’s not imbue it with the mystery of the self-addressed envelope or, god forbid, notions of political correctness. If this type of film floats your boat, go ahead, sit there, relax and let a couple of hours of your life go by. Enjoy. One bit of gratuitous advice though; I wouldn’t lie awake at night reflecting upon its its deeper meaning or profundities.

Crazy Rich Asians Reviewed


must be considered within the context of an increasingly diverse audience that has yet to be tapped to its full potential.”

The members of the selection panel for performers included Anousha Zarkesh (Casting Director), Amanda Mitchell (Casting Director), Peter Andrikidis (Director), Chloe Rickard (Producer, Jungle Entertainment), and Shareena Clanton (Actor).

But it was not only performers who were participants. The Australian Writers Guild selected six writers to participate whilst The Australian Directors’ Guild chose five up-and-coming directors.

Kingston Anderson, CEO of the Aust-ralian Directors’ Guild (ADG) noted that, “We had an overwhelming response to our call out for this program from a very talented and diverse range of applicants, and we found it extremely difficult to narrow our selection to only five. There is obviously a huge need for a diversity program of this kind and we look forward to working with the directors, and other successful applicants, in bringing diversity to our screens.”

Andrea Solonge an actor and participant in the event said, “The final showcase was held at The Actors Center Australia to a capacity audience of 300 people. More seats had to be added as there wasn’t enough room, proving that Australia is hungry for representation and to see diverse talent shine”, whilst Nerida Moore, Senior Development Executive at Screen Australia said, “This showcase is an important step forward in developing authentic screen stories that accurately reflect the breadth of diversity in our society.”

Showcasing DiversityContinued from page 1

Continued from page 4 hailed as a great success by organisers and participants alike. The program though, doesn’t end there. Participants in the Diversity Showcase will also benefit from mentorships and further professional development for up to a year, enhancing the diversity of talent and practitioners in the pipeline.

Selecting the final participants was not easy.

Bali Padda, Chair of the Equity Diversity Committee, said: “Each of the selection panels had a very challenging job choosing these participants from such a large pool of amazing applicants. It is exciting to find the best calibre of screen talent and practitioners from diverse backgrounds, pull them out of the margins and showcase their skills in front of the industry. We hope this program is a game-changer that shakes up the industry and feeds historically underrepresented practitioners and talent into the pipeline for a truly representative screen industry for Australia”. He went on to say, that he believes there is a compelling case to be made that people will be more likely to attend a performance or watch a film or TV show if they identify with the stories they see. “The future sustainability and growth of Australia’s screen industry

“ Australia is hungry for representation and

to see diverse talent ”

“ attraction among mainstream US

audiences rests with its somewhat exotic

and vicarious appeal ”

appearing in stereotypical,’ novelty’ roles particularly in advertising (the earnest Chinese nerd, the surly waiter or the babbling oriental harridan etc) to the modern day with its more mainstream and considered representations, notionally free of artifice, tokenism or casting box-ticking. The journey has not been without pain or controversy though. Whilst ethnic representations in our media are far from ideal, there is now, in the main, the beginning of an unselfconscious represen-tation of Asians (in particular) that reflects the reality of our multicultural society. Representation of other ethnicities how-ever still tends to lag.

I realise that the level of Asian repres-entation in our media is still regarded as inadequate by some and I respect that view. But I also respectfully suggest that it will be economic imperatives that will guide that representation in the long run. Advertisers and film makers are quick to recognise marketing opportunities and if they ignore a significant proportion of the population in marketing and advertising campaigns, they do so at their peril. Much has been said for instance at how ‘brave’ the producers of ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ were to mandate an all Asian cast, a decision I suggest had more to do with appealing to the vast Chinese market and the Chinese diaspora than any notions of ‘bravery’. Ground-breaking in many aspects the film may be, but in the end it was a shrewd commercial decision made not without risk, but commercial all the same.

So who are Asians? In Australia, when we refer to people being Asian, the common understanding is that their ethnic back-ground is from South-East Asia - China, Vietnam, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, The Philippines and the like. However, in the UK for instance, the term Asian generally refers to those

individuals hailing from the Indian sub-continent. Another source of confusion is that westerners often see “Chinese’ and ‘Asian’ as being interchangeable terms, a contention demonstrably untrue.

The term Asian too covers a multitude of differing nationalities, ethnicities, language groupings and racial groups. A Korean for instance may in broad terms be mistaken for Japanese in appearances but it would be highly unlikely that they would be assumed to be Indonesian or Cambodian. Even within national or language groupings, situations arise where a person may be a Cambodian (a nation primarily of Indo-Chinese ethnicity), but may be part of the Chinese diaspora found in all Asian countries and thus the Chinese Cambodian would likely have more in common, appearance wise, with a citizen of China for instance. In another example, in a country like Malaysia or Singapore to lesser extent, there are three main and distinct racial groups and cultures, namely Malay, Chinese and Indian, so deciding upon the appearance and indeed language of a ‘typical’ Malaysian or Singaporean could be problematic. The aforesaid ‘“Crazy Rich Asians’, set in Singapore, has been criticised for failing to show the cultural and racial diversity in that society. Further criticism is aimed at the choices of ‘Chinese’ talent, with cast members hailing from Malaysia, Singapore, the US, Korea and Australia. The choice of the lead male talent too has been criticised for casting a ‘Eurasion’ rather than a ‘real’ Asian.

Early in my casting career I had to supply an Asian couple to appear in a bank commercial. At the time, this was considered quite a radical departure from the normal ‘Anglo-centric’ casting bias. I found a delightful couple, one of whom was my sister’s friend, whilst the other I found managing a Chinese restaurant. As the shoot

progressed and in an effort to put them at their ease, the director helpfully suggested that they should just chat with each other in their own language, a suggestion received with much hilarity by the talent after they pointed out that she spoke Vietnamese and he spoke Mandarin and that the only language they had in common was English. It had not occurred to him that asking the talent to chat in their own language was as absurd as asking an Italian to chat with a Greek in their own language. It was my first intimation that ‘Asians’ were at best considered an homogeneous grouping and free of any nuance.

As agents and managers we are often asked to supply talent of a particular nation-ality, for instance, Japanese. If it is a non speaking role, then we are normally able to supply that Japanese talent or talent of ‘Japanese appearance’. We have numerous arguments about the ‘Japanese or Chinese, or Singaporean etc appearance’ with the proposition put forward, erroneously in most cases, that Japanese look different to Koreans or Chinese etc. This is sometimes the case, but not always. Of course, if the talent were required to speak in Japanese then it would be highly unlikely a Korean would speak that language like a Japanese native speaker. It is no different to choosing in a non-speaking role, a blond northern Italian to portray a Swede or a dark haired, olive skinned Irishman to portray a Greek notwithstanding the notions of ‘typicality’. What’s more, in Australia there are many first and second generation Asian Aust-ralians who have no Asian language skills but of course retain their ‘typical’ ethnic appearance. Would then, in this case, a non-Japanese speaking, ethnic Japanese be acceptable? The answer is of course yes.

Casting Asians and Other Ethnicities in AustraliaContinued from page 1

Continued on page 7


“ there are many first and second generation Asian Australians who have no Asian language

skills but of course retain their ‘typical’

ethnic appearance ”

“ Another source of confusion is that westerners often see

“Chinese’ and ‘Asian’ as being inter-

changeable terms ”

“ it will be economic imperatives that will guide that

representation in the long run ”

the demand for talent in that category over the past years. Eurasians or talent of mixed Asian and European heritage often fulfil this role, but not always.

I have always thought that the true test of effective and appropriate Asian (or any other ethnicity for that matter) representation in the media is when roles are not defined by ethnicity and are open to all. So when the question is raised, ‘Why is the motor mechanic, school teacher, mother, police officer, dentist, gangster or truck driver an Asian?’ the short answer is ‘Why not?’. Its only when this question does not need to be asked and when we accept casting decisions and representations and judge chosen talent on their merits as actors and performers, heedless to their ethnicity and appearance, that we will have truly reached a significant point in the representation of all ethnicities in our media.

In another development, Australia’s anti-discrimination laws have impacted upon the casting process. Some years ago, a casting call went out for ‘a typical Aussie teenager’ with the proviso that ‘he should be tanned and blond’. A reference was provided of a blond haired Caucasian youth with suncream on his nose. The agency who provided the brief ran foul of anti-discrimination legislation on the basis that there was no ‘typical’ Australian and that defining such was discriminatory. Whilst the aims of the anti-discrimination legislation are laudable, it has lead to a situation where casting calls are so general in nature that they lose valid specificity. It is not uncommon to find for instance a casting call for a grandfather of two grandchildren (the children having been already cast and of ‘Caucasion appearance’) with the brief that the role is open to ‘all ethnicities, age 0-99 years’, thus apparently avoiding any accusations of discrimination. To any reasonable person though, the abs- urdity of this extreme example is palpable and renders the casting process ineffectual at best.

Furthermore, there is now a need creep-ing into casting briefs, for Pan-Asians and in some cases, Eurasians. The two terms may sound similar or refer to the same thing, but that is not necessarily the case. By Pan Asian it is normally meant that the talent could pass for any number of Asian nationalities - Phillipino, Indonesian, Malay, Singaporean or Thai for instance. There is of course an economic imperative in casting Pan-Asians in television commercials or ad campaigns as separate visual versions of the advertising material do not need to be made for differing countries or regions. As such there has been a marked increase in

“ in Australia there are many first and

second generation Asian Australians who have no

Asian language skills but of course retain their ‘typical’

ethnic appearance ”


Casting Asians and Other Ethnicities in AustraliaContinued from page 6

“ was no ‘typical’ Australian and that

defining such was discriminatory ”

the local eyenews from around australia

• The Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts (AACTA) has announced a Best Casting award to be included among its annual award categories. The casting award recognises the vital role that casting plays in the production process and mirrors similar awards made by equivalent industry bodies overseas. Casting Guild of Australia President Kirsty McGregor noted that “It’s been said by countless directors that casting is unequivocally the most important element in the filmmaking process, and the AACTA Award for Best Casting shines a light on the craft and career of casting itself and can and will inspire generations to come.”

• An actor and presenter is suing a production company over injuries she sustained during filming a lifestyle segment seven years ago. Melissa Hetherington is alleging that she injured her shoulder after being thrown from an unrestrained horse after it bolted and threw her to the ground. She further alleges that the production company, WTFN Entert-ainment, failed to supply a safe work- place, adequate instruction and neg-lected to properly identify the risks entailed, thus placing her in danger. Hetherington claims she suffered a broken wrist, humerus and shoulder cap which required surgery and left her with disfigurement and scarring.

• The August release Mark Joffe’s Jimmy Barnes Working Class Boy has met with critical acclaim and box office success. The biopic opened on 221 screens, the widest opening distrib-ution for any Australian feature docu-mentary, making $501,000 in the process.

Diane GeachDiane Geach is the founding principal of asia Look Talent and Model [email protected]: +61 2 9975 1050


• Less than a year after it officially laun-ched with grand ambitions of becoming a Hollywood mini-studio, several of the most prominent divisions of Global Road Entertainment filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in a Delaware bankruptcy court. Global Road’s film operation was thrown into chaos in recent weeks after owner Tang Media Partners, was unable to raise $200 million in financing. Court documents indicate the debtor now reports between $100 million and $500 million in liabilities. The biggest liability comes from about $91 million owed to Bank of America. Bank Leumi, Viacom, Disney, NBCUniversal, and TBS round out the list of the top five creditors which are each owed several million dollars.

• Zhang Yimou the doyen of modern Chinese cinema has received the Jaeger-LeCoultre Glory to the Filmmaker Award in recognition of the 66-year old’s contri-bution to the commercial Chinese film industry. It was not all plain sailing for Zhang. His films often suffered censure at home for ‘exoticising’ China’s social problems and backwardness. As the country is poised to overtake the U.S. as the world’s biggest film market, Zhang cast A-list stars Christian Bale and Matt Damon in the drama “The Flowers of War” (2011) and period monster-fantasy “The Great Wall”. However, in an attempt to bridge the tastes of East and West, critical and audience responses were lukewarm.

• Bollywood distributor Eros International has entered into content licensing deal with the streaming giant iOIYI. A spokes-person said that Eros Now (Eros’s own streaming platform) ‘becomes the first South Asian OTT (over-the-top network) player to make inroads into the Chinese digital space’. Indian films are enjoying a surge of popularity in Chinese theatres and screens.

the global eyenews from around the world

The new online authority application process to facilitate the employment of children in NSW in the entertainment, exhibition and still photography sectors has been a great success with producers noting the simplification of the process.

This newly automated application form now only takes a few minutes to complete with one-week authorities costing $200 for an entertainment and exhibition employment authority and $100 for still photography. Employing any child in NSW under the age of fifteen in film, television, still photography, modelling, online videos or as live performers requires this authority. Unauthorised employment of children can result in substantial fines.

Applications should be submitted at least seven days before the anticipated employment date. Prospective employers will be asked to complete a pre-employ-ment notification (PEN) form and provide

risk assessments and details of measures in place to mitigate those risks. Further information such as scripts, storyboards and a proposed employment schedule for the child may also be required.

And so when making an application it helps the speed the process if the following information is at hand:What: Shoot NameWhen: Earliest date likely to be called in (includes wardrobe fittings and other preparatory activities)Where: Town / suburb / location, in a house, studio, beach, park etcTalent: Approximate number of children and age range. Detailed PEN form can come in laterTime required: Maximum likely call duration and likely start timeChild’s Role: Details of the child’s performance and action required, the risks involved and the subsequent proposed risk management plans including likely variations.

For further advice or information, call us here at Talentpay on +61 2 8204 4700 or contact https://www.kidsguardian.nsw.gov.au/children-s-employment/supplying-production-information

Smoothing the Way for Child Employment

“ Unauthorised employment of children can result in substantial fines of $5500 per child illegally employed ”

caRLY cOnsTanTiniDes, is Talentpays head of aUnZ / Legal

LETTERS & EMAILS

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ACCC Loses Patience with ACL OffendersTen Fold Increase in Fines and Penalties

In a sign that the Federal Parliament is getting serious about breaches of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (CCA) and Australian Consumer Law (ACL), fines for false and misleading representations and unfair practices, consumer goods’ safety issues, unconscionable conduct and inform-ation standards as defined by ACL have been substantially increased to bring them in line with the far more considerable penalties extant in the CCA legislation*.

These are not insignificant amounts and marketers and advertisers would do well to take heed. Breaches of ACL by companies can now attract the following penalties:• Fines of up to $10 million, (up from the

previous amount of $1.1 million) or,• Fines of up to triple the amount of benefit

obtained from the breach or,• 10% percent of the overall turnover of the

company where the benefit stemming from a breach is unable to be quantified.It is worth noting that the greatest amount

of the three above options will apply when assessing penalties. Individuals do not escape those penalties either with the fine for an individual breaching the legislation increasing from $220,000 to $500,000.

These changes reflect concerns by The Australian Competition and Consumer Com-mission (ACCC) that the previous penalties were manifestly inadequate, failing as they did to act in any way as a breach deterrent. The stated aim of these new penalties (the result of a three year investigation by the ACCC) is to align the existing ACL penalties with the existing maximum penalties under the competition provisions of the CCA, and to ‘deter non-compliant conduct and reduce the financial benefits and incentives for businesses to engage in conduct in breach of the ACL’.* See table to the right

by brian geach


cOnDUcT ciViL cRiMinaL

Unconscionable conductEngage in unconscionable conduct section 20 no equivalentEngage in unconscionable conduct for the supply or acquisition of goods or services section 21 no equivalent

Unfair PracticesFalse or misleading representations about goods or services section 29 section 151

False or misleading representations about sale of land section 30 section 152

Misleading conduct relating to employment section 31 section 153

Offering, with the intention of not providing, rebates, gifts, prizes section 32 section 154

Misleading conduct as to the nature of goods section 33 section 155

Misleading conduct as to the nature of services section 34 section 156

Bait advertising section 35 section 157

Wrongly accepting payment section 36 section 158

Misleading representations about certain business activities section 37 section 159

Unsolicited supply of cards section 39 section 161

Assertion of a right to payment for unsolicited goods or services section 40 section 162

Assertion of a right to payment for unauthorised entries or advertisements section 43 section 163

Participation in pyramid schemes section 44 section 164

Making a representation that an amount constitutes part of the consideration for goods or services section 48 section 166

Unfair PracticesReferral selling section 49 section 167

Harassment or coercion in connection with the supply or payment of a good or service, or sale or payment of land section 50 section 168

safety of consumer goods and product related servicesSupplying consumer goods that do not comply with safety standards section 106 section 194

Supplying product related services that do not comply with safety standards section 107 section 195

Supplying consumer goods covered by a ban section 118 section 197

Supplying product related services covered by a ban section 119 section 198

Non-compliance with a recall notice section 127 section 199

information standardsSupplying goods that do not comply with information standards section 136 section 203

Supplying services that do not comply with information standards section 137 section 204

‘The Commonwealth spent convictions scheme (the Scheme) allows an individual not to disclose certain criminal con-victions in particular circumstances and prohibits unauthorised use or disclosure of information about the conviction. The Scheme applies to convictions for less serious Commonwealth, State (including the Northern Territory and ACT) and foreign offences. It also covers pardons and quashed convictions. A conviction for a State offence may also be covered by a spent conviction scheme in the relevant State or Territory. https://www.oaic.gov.au/individuals/privacy-fact-sheets/general/privacy-fact-sheet-41-commonwealth-spent-convictions-scheme’

It’s also important the request for infor-mation comes prior to the engagement and talent are clearly informed that the information being collected will deter- mine their suitability for the campaign.

It would also be prudent for production teams to only collect personal informa-tion from talent if essential and for a necessary purpose. For example, back-ground extras not recognizable may not necessarily need to disclose their criminal history, as a lead of a campaign would. Likewise, if the campaign is for a client from a government or regulatory back-ground, the client may request the lead talent have no criminal history to protect brand and public image.

caRLY cOnsTanTiniDes, head of aUnZ and Legal counsel, Talentpay

I am an actor and recently appeared in a television com-mercial shot over two days

in Melbourne. My agent supplied the advertising agency (who I understand is my legal employer) with my TFN and super fund details (I have a SMSF). Tax was deducted at the correct rate of 20% but after three months I noticed that the super guarantee amount had not been paid into my fund. When I finally got through to the ad agency I was told my money had been paid into a default fund rather than my SMSF. They could not supply with an answer as to why they did this. What can I do about this as it’s the second time it has happened in the last year?

acTOR, Melbourne

This should be able to be easily rectified by the ad agency. Some ad agencies are reluctant to do

so for some reason, but don’t be put off!

Contact the agency and request that they get the funds returned from the default fund so that they may deposit it into the correct superannuation account. Please ensure you provide the ad agency with the necessary superannuation information such as your account name, your electronic service address (ESA) and fund bank details as the agency will not be able to make the contribution without these details.

sTePhanie BaRRY, Finance Manager, Talentpay

I am a performer agent and manager. I have noticed an increasing trend in casting briefs for the

performer agent to verify that talent put forward for a job does not have a criminal record or a record of serious driving offences. I am loathe sometimes to ask my talent as I am not sure whether I would be breaching any privacy laws. I am also curious if a criminal or serious driving offence con-viction remains a permanent record or if after a period of time, it is expunged. If it were expunged, would they still need to declare it? One of my talent voluntarily told me he’d been convicted of DUI and driving whilst disqualified fifteen years ago but that the record of these offences had been ‘spent’. Does this sound plausible or even possible?

PeRFORMeR aGenT & ManaGeR, sydney

When requesting for talent to disclose any personal infor-mation or sign disclaimers, it is

important to consider the national privacy principles and ensure any collection of personal information is in line with the national privacy laws.

Criminal convictions are classed as sens-itive information and have extra protection under the AU privacy framework. Certain convictions might be protected by the spent convictions scheme and talent are not required to disclose these by law. Requesting them to disclose this type of protected information could be a breach of the privacy principles:

Compliance Review Quarterly’s panel answers your compliance questions.

If you have any questions you would like our panel to consider please contact the editor at [email protected]

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Q&A

Disclaimer: * The answers provided by individuals or the organisations they represent, do not constitute legal advice or legal services and are for general information purposes only. Legal advice needs to be tailored to the unique facts and circumstances of an individual case and the answers provided here are not a substitute for obtaining your own independent legal advice.


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