There’s something been thrown in my face a lot lately that seems to be growing from snowball to snowman proportions. The Game Developers’ Association of Australia (GDAA) have been hitting the government pretty hard lately for a 40% rebate to support the industry and its hungry game developers.

Why? Good question. It seems a ‘Screen Media Support Package’ was announced in the budget, allowing a similar rebate to what Greg Bondar (CEO of GDAA) is looking for. It’s a fair beef, why should the film industry be getting allowances while the game industry is left behind? There’s no question behind the force of the gaming industry and its value to the economy, especially when compared to other media groups.

Then again, the 40% rebate would amount to around $25 million per year. That’s how much Daikatana cost to make. It’s not fair that gaming is being ignored by the government like this, but it’s not like it needs support. Sales figures go up every year – recently topping the music industry.

Opinionated or not – with the governments refusal the GDAA have called on for support. If you’re an Aussie and keen to get behind your industry click the image below to go to the GDAA site for details (and be glad they’re not associated with the GNAA).

“We will now go to the streets and call for the support of all our members and the game developers and gamers themselves to get behind this initiatives. We have created an online petition and are asking everyone to phone, mail or email their local federal member of Parliament and the Minister Helen Coonan, to express their dissatisfaction that the industry has been repeatedly ignored by government. Let’s hope that this makes the politicians listen and give our industry the support it so desperately needs.”