Queensland’s film industry risks being snuffed out unless the federal government increases tax breaks to attract international film companies, the head of Screen Queensland said.



Tracey Vierra says they have been working to get the new Dora the Explorer live-action movie to film in Queensland, but it may not come here because there is not enough of an incentive to film in Australia compared to other countries, including New Zealand.



Australia has a 16.5% tax offset for international film productions, compared to 25% in New Zealand and 30% in the US state of Georgia.

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“This isn’t about being the cheapest, we don’t want to be the cheapest, we want to be able to compete with those jurisdictions,” Vierra told ABC radio.



The federal government has agreed to one-off arrangements for recent productions such as Aquaman, but is yet to make a decision on the Dora film, with a decision due by the end of the week.



Vierra said Queensland missed out on the new Tomb Raider film and a spinoff to the popular Fast and the Furious franchise because a similar one-off arrangement could not be worked out in time.



“When I went and met with one of the big studios recently they said to me, ‘We have this production, but we didn’t know if we could get to the politicians in time to actually consider Australia and we took it off the table’, and that’s our issue,” she said.



Treasurer Scott Morrison is reportedly considering extending a one-off tax credit to the Dora production, but prime minister Malcolm Turnbull said on Wednesday it was up to the state government to do more to attract film projects.

“We already have a very substantial tax break to encourage people to make movies in Australia and many do,” he said



“On a case by case basis we can increase that, but it’s always open to the state government to do more.”



Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk urged the prime minister to meet her halfway to ensure the local industry built on recent high-profile projects such as Aquaman and the Pirates of the Caribbean.



“If we do not secure this next blockbuster, the people on the Gold Coast will go to other parts of the world, and the jobs will be lost,” Palaszczuk said.



“Around 80% of the people employed on Aquaman at the moment do not have jobs. If we secure this next project, those jobs remain on the Gold Coast.”