Page 1305 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 3 April 2019
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characters that have populated some of the games themselves over the years. This is not the time to explore all of the sexist tropes and examples I am advised of regarding gratuitous violence towards women or nudity that have appeared in games for many years.
As a progressive member of the Assembly who I assume has an ongoing interest in this area, I am sure that Mr Pettersson is aware of these issues. Given that that is the case, when conducting its investigation of the potential of developing an e-sports strategy to attract tournaments and promote local economic growth, the ACTÂ government should be mindful of developing strategies that will prevent or at least reduce online vilification and harassment. We should be helping to create an environment where people feel safe when they are gaming and that encourages more girls and women into the gaming community in a safe way.
The ACT is already well known for its support for gaming and is already profiting from the economic benefits of gaming. There are game developers in Canberra, including the ACT Greens Senate candidate Dr Penny Kyburz. The Academy of Interactive Entertainment has been a great incubator for small gaming businesses and many gaming programmers who have gone on to work internationally in the field. They employ teaching staff and have students who come from far afield to study here in Canberra. In fact many moons ago when I was studying computing in the Northern Rivers, I attempted to do an offsite unit with the forerunner of the Academy of Interactive Entertainment. Just a few years ago we had an office here for 2K Games, who are a big game company. It eventually closed but they did manage to develop content for the game Borderlands from start to finish right here in Canberra.
We do not have a port, heavy industry or a significant manufacturing sector in Canberra. For our economic diversity it is important that we work to attract other industries and events. E-sports are incredibly popular internationally, particularly in Asia, and Canberra would no doubt get a lot of visibility were games to be held here. However, it is worth noting that few tournaments happen outside big cities. For instance, the Overwatch League has 20 teams that are from all over the world but spend the entire season in Los Angeles and play all their matches there. It could be difficult to coax major e-sports teams to Canberra. On top of this, we must not forget that video game companies control every level of the competition: the games, the teams, the broadcast, the merchandising et cetera.
The Greens have a solid plan for growing the gaming industry in Australia. We want to see investment in game development projects and to help successful games companies grow their business. We believe that this must include initiatives for diversity and inclusion.
During a 2016 Senate inquiry, the industry was forthright in its concerns that, while the audience for games is extremely diverse, the industry workforce is heavily demographically skewed towards young males. A variety of strategies for promoting diversity were canvassed during the various hearings of the committee, leading to a unanimous recommendation that any commonwealth funding support for such proposals as those addressed in its paper should be premised on proactive developer strategies to improve the diversity of its workforce.
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