[LINK] Greens meet geeks - supporting computer games developers

[Alastair Rankine]

> the Greens are today coming out with a policy to support
> the computer games industry in Australia.

I have some questions about this policy:

- The justification given for this policy is that it helps
Australia to develop "clever" industries. Which is fine, but
why single out games developers? Aren't developers of
finance software equally contributing to developing a clever
economy?

- If I remember rightly, the film industry gets its tax
breaks because of its (notional anyway) contributions to
Australian culture. Are the games developers expected to
contribute similarly? Because I doubt this will be the case
- computer games are almost always set in space or in
abstract, fantasy worlds where there is no connection to any
real world culture (let alone Australia).

- The Midway/Ratbag debacle is still reasonably fresh in
people's minds. How will this policy help to prevent a
repeat of this incident?