Today marks 500 days since the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee tabled the report of its Inquiry into the Future of Australia’s video game development industry.

Yet another victim of the Fifield Triangle, the vortex of drift which delays almost everything in its path, the report Game On: more than playing around has still not received a substantive response from Government.

On 29 April 2016, the Senate Committee tabled the report, containing eight unanimous recommendations to advance the games development industry.

Despite an open letter from the Interactive Games and Entertainment Association to Communications Minister, Mitch Fifield, in May 2017, there is still no response.

Labor understands that games have the capacity to solve high value problems across health, education and other sectors, and that Australia has the potential to lead in games for entertainment and non-entertainment purposes alike. Labor understands that bandwidth-hungry technologies, such as virtual reality and augmented reality, will only increase the potential applications for serious games.

Australia is on the cusp of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and cannot afford the ongoing ineptitude of the Turnbull Government which over-promises and under-delivers in the Communications Portfolio.

Not only is the Turnbull Government ploughing billions into a 19th century copper broadband network, they are ignoring the video game development industry that will help transform our economy and society.