As predicted by Simon Nasht at last week’s 2012 AIDC conference in Adelaide, the Federal Court has rejected Screen Australia’s appeal against the documentary series Lush House being granted the producer offset.

As Geoff Brown says, SPAA urged Screen Australia not to appeal against the ruling that Lush House was eligible for the offset, but they went ahead anyway. This will now add to the uncertainty about the definition of what is a documentary, for the purposes of the Producer Offset.

Here is Brendan Swift of IF Magazine’s take on the issue (Wed 07/03/2012)

The Federal Court of Australia has confirmed that TV documentary series Lush House should qualify for the Producer Offset rebate after Screen Australia challenged last year’s similar decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The national screen agency originally rejected Essential Media and Entertainment’s Producer Offset application because it viewed the ten-episode cleaning series as a ‘reality’ program. However, Essential argued that the series, which follows household expert Shannon Lush as she gives cleaning advice to homemakers, was similar to another of its programs, Is Your House Killing You?, which did receive the tax break.

The AAT confirmed Essential’s position although Screen Australia then challenged that judgement in the Federal Court.

Essential said the Federal Court did not find any fault with the process followed by the lower court in determining that Lush House is eligible for the 20 per cent tax rebate available for broadcast documentaries.

Essential Media and Entertainment chief executive Chris Hilton said the company is pleased with the Federal Court decision.

“It represents a win for the Australian production industry as a whole and should provide more certainty to producers who are seeking to invest the Producer’s Offset as part of their project finance,” he said in a statement.

Continue reading Screen Australia loses Producer Offset appeal →