Thank you for joining me today as another busy year for our Guild draws to an end.
Here’s what we’ve been up to.
Advocacy
The last few months have seen significant gains in the Guild’s two largest advocacy campaigns – the fight to ensure writers are protected against the unregulated use of AI, and the long-running push for content quotas on streaming services.
In August, the Guild was quick to reject the suggestion of a Text and Data Mining exception floated by the Productivity Commission in their Interim Report on AI, a move we pointed out would devastate the local creative industries and legitimise the theft of Australian works that has already taken place.
With the support of our fellow creative Guilds and alongside industry partners APRA AMCOS and the Australian Society of Authors, we led a campaign against the suggestion of a TDM exception, with regular appearances in the media, in front of Senate Committees, in meetings in Canberra and through multiple submissions to government
We are pleased to say we won.
In October we welcomed the Attorney General’s announcement that the Australian Government will continue to protect Australia’s strong copyright framework and will not introduce a TDM exception.
While there’s still a long way to go to ensure an ethical future for AI use in the creative industries, this sets a precedent that Australian creators cannot be dictated to over how our work is used moving forward. It gives us a bargaining tool in negotiations, and reminds big tech that we are backed by Australian copyright law. They can approach us as partners with fair terms, or they can leave.
The other major gain for our industry came earlier this month with the Government introducing legislation for local content requirements on streaming services.
And again, we won.
This has been a hard fought and long campaign. Since the launch of the Make It Australian campaign in 2017, the AWG and Australian screenwriters have been at the forefront of the push to ensure streamers invest in our industry and our Australian stories. Now it’s in legislation, and the policy framework is in place to ensure streamers invest in local content for generations to come.
We look forward to continuing to work with government and the industry to make sure that this legislation operates as intended, that these companies pay their share.
Negotiations for the Theatre Industry Agreement remain ongoing. We’ve had regular meetings with CAST throughout 2025. The sole remaining factor outstanding between us and CAST is the theatre companies’ insistence on retaining the right to be paid a royalty for any future screen adaptations of the work. Playwrights do and should retain sole ownership of the copyright of the work, which the theatre companies are trying to undo. We won’t budge on this.
Our work on superannuation continues, and we have made clear our position that writers who are engaged by production companies to write scripts are entitled to superannuation under the Superannuation Guarantee Administration Act.
Our day-to-day industrial work has also been strong. Since last year, our industrial team has handled over 500 industrial and legal matters. This included the provision of industrial advice to members, referring legal matters to and briefing the Guild’s external solicitors, reviewing contracts, advocating on behalf of members to producers, credit arbitrations and industrial research.
We keep fighting on your behalf. And we keep winning.
Professional Development
It’s been a busy and productive year for our professional development and member services teams.
Last month, the Creators program returned for a third successful year in partnership with Screen Australia and Scripted Ink.
After two years in Los Angeles, we were able to bring the program home to Australia and welcome international industry leader Jeff Melvoin to Sydney. Our Year Three Creators, Tamara Asmar, Anna Barnes, Sarah Bassiuoni, Glen Dolman, Michele Offen, Jessica Tuckwell and Monica Zanetti, spent a week undergoing intense training in showrunning, pitching and production, followed by two days of table reads for their lead projects.
The Creators will head to Content London later this month, where they’ll have the opportunity to immerse themselves in the world’s leading development market.
At the end of The Creators, we were fortunate to have Jeff join us for a major industry panel, Exploring the Showrunner Model, alongside Shane Brennan, Sarah Lambert, Mithila Gupta and Anya Beyersdorf. If you missed this fantastic event, you can now watch the livestream on our website.
Our community of writers have been able to come together online and in person through our program of committee events and our Lunch Break webinar series at the start of each month.
In June we launched a new AWG website and member portal, which is your source for AWG member services. Engagement with our script services has risen, with over 490 scripts registered and 99 script assessments completed this year.
We ran four workshops for the Screen Australia Enterpise People cohort covering IP, Writers’ Room Best Practice, Slate Management and Budgeting, and Pitching, and presented a Meet the Writers panel as part of AACTA Festival featuring nominated screenwriters.
For writers interested in narrative design and games writing, we ran our Narrative Design social event at Melbourne International Games Week in October. It was a great success, with writers for games, interactive, AR and table top gathering for a panel discussion and to network.
The 58th Annual AWGIE Awards closed for entries in September with over 250 entries. Judging is currently under way and nominations will be announced in January, ahead of our Awards celebration on Thursday 19 February at NIDA in Sydney. We hope to see you there.
The Emerging Writers’ Awards and John Hinde Award were held in Melbourne in July, celebrating the next generation of Australian storytellers and excellence in sci-fi writing.
Our Pathways program has continued to grow, with 892 registered users with access to the view the 226 projects; this includes producers, production companies, television executives, agents, managers, directors, funding agencies and other qualified industry professionals.
The winning and shortlisted projects in all of the above competitions are now available for on Showcase, and if you’re looking to get on to Pathways, the John Hinde Award and the Emerging Writers’ Awards will open for entries again in early 2026.
For emerging writers:
In partnership with Screenworks, we ran Seeding Storytellers, a note-taker training program for First Nations screenwriters. We also ran our In The Writers’ Room workshop in Western Australia, led by Terence McCarthy.
In 2026, we’ll be launching an online “road map” for emerging writers followed by a dedicated program for our Associate and Student members looking to break into the industry, so keep an eye out for information coming next year.
Thank yous
This year we farewell two NEC members, Aaron McCann and Katherine Thomson.
Aaron first joined the NEC in 2019 as our Western Australia representative, while also taking on the role of Committee chair for WA. Over the last six years he’s organised networking events, drinks and catch-ups, workshops, panels and opportunities for writers in WA, and has forged partnerships with our fellow guilds and writer organisations in and around Perth. He has been a champion for the WA-branch of the Guild.
Katherine has been a stalwart member of the NEC for over 20 years, including a turn as Vice President of the Guild. She has brought incredible insight and experience as a playwright and screenwriter to many of the Guild’s hardest fought victories, including the signing of the first Theatre Industry Agreement in 2016 and the Make It Australian campaign. As part of the Membership Committee, Katherine has worked to ensure the Guild’s membership remains strong, a particularly difficult task through the COVID-years. She has contributed more than most to our Guild.
To Aaron and Katherine, the AWG offers its most sincere thanks for the time, effort and energy you have put in on behalf of your fellow writers.
Thank you to our State Committees, who provide events for members across the country, and to our Advisory Council and the Diversity Inclusion Advisory Committee for volunteering their time and insight for the benefit of all writers.
To our volunteer judges across all our competitions, including the AWGIE Awards, who give so generously of their time to ensure the Awards maintain a standard of excellence that is acknowledged throughout the industry.
To all those members who said yes to being on a panel, in the media, on a webinar, or who contributed to our research and policy this year, thank you for your support, insights and advocacy. And especially for your solidarity with your fellow writers.
AWG’s annual activity is delivered by our dedicated staff and advisors. Thank you to: Bryant Apolonio, Caitlin Flett, Susie Hamilton, Karen Johnston, Lucy Nelson, Leo O’Donoghue, Georgina O’Farrell, Shannen Usher, Pete Valentish, and Lisa Wang. They are led by Executive Director Claire Pullen.
We also thank the AWGACS Board for their commitment to our shared membership and our shared goal of fair remuneration for writers.
Thank you to my fellow NEC members: Shanti Gudgeon, Niki Aken, Shayne Armstrong, Kodie Bedford, Andrew Bovell, Sam Meikle, Aaron McCann, and Katherine Thomson.
And finally, I’d like to thank our members, who are at the centre of all that we do here at the Guild.
We are stronger together, and this year has shown just how much we can achieve.
We hope wherever you are and whatever your plans you have a safe and festive holiday season, and we will see you in 2026.
