FAQs | Resources & Forms FAQs What are secondary royalties? Secondary royalties arise from the secondary usage of your audiovisual work. In Australia, secondary royalties are generated from government use, educational use and retransmission. In New Zealand, you may receive royalties for educational usage. Many more types of secondary usages exist around the world. Will I receive money every year? The nature of secondary royalties is unpredictable but if we have distributable royalties for you, we will let you know. How do you know what I’ve written? Our extensive database is kept up to date by our staff but we also rely on our members letting us know when they've written something new. Can my royalties go to my agent? We will transfer your royalties into your nominated bank account. How much does it cost to join AWGACS? It is free to join AWGACS. Resources & Forms New membership agreement AWGACS Writing Credits Form

AWGACS was established in 1996 as the copyright collecting society for screenwriters from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Notices for members A reminder for members to sign the new membership agreement: New membership agreement Copyright Collecting Societies Code of Conduct — Call for Submissions 2026 AWGACS subscribes to the Copyright Collecting Societies Code of Conduct, with compliance independently reviewed each year. Interested parties are invited to make submissions to the Code Reviewer regarding the period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. To make a submission, contact the Code Review Secretariat at secretariat@copyrightcodeofconduct.org.au . Submissions close 31 July 2026 . To read the full notice, click here . WHAT IS AWGACS? AWGACS was established in 1996 as the copyright collecting society for screen authors from Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. Since then, we have collected over $33 million dollars for members and authors from around the world. Join now to protect your right to secondary royalties - it's free! Join AWGACS Now Unable to contact list NEWS COPYRIGHT COLLECTING SOCIETIES CODE OF CONDUCT - CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS 2026 Compliance by participating collecting societies with the Code’s standards of conduct is the subject of an independent annual review. May 21 Education giants seek midnight raid on creator rights Joint statement from AMPAL, APRA AMCOS, ARIA PPCA, Australian Publishers Association, Australian Society of Authors, Australian Writers’ Guild, AWG Authorship Collecting Society, Copyright Agency and Screenrights. The Copyright Advisory Group (CAG) is seeking concessions that go significantly further than what the Australian Government consulted introduced into Parliament. Friday 20 March 2026 – Australian authors, songwriters, recording artists, visual artists, photographers Mar 19 More Posts

Protect your fair share - it's free to join AWGACS! JOIN AWGACS Protect your fair share - i t's free to join AWGACS! Become an AWGACS member JOIN AWG The Australian Writers’ Guild continues to fight against unfair treatment of writers both for the writers’ sake and in support of a healthy industry. We are negotiating new industrial terms and conditions and have developed a new range of model contracts and minimum recommended terms and conditions. Our service for members ups the ante on contract negotiations and adherence. Solidarity is fundamental to winning these battles. Support the guild that works hard for you and your fellow writers, and call on our services to fight for what you are worth. In joining with other writing professionals, you will be contributing to the health of Australian performance writing culture and all its communities. Without the support and advice of the Guild over the past 60 years, many successful writers would never have had the chance to develop the careers they now cherish. Australia’s most prominent writers are long-serving members of the Australian Writers’ Guild. Become an AWG member JOIN NZWG NZWG was founded in 1976 and is the professional membership association and registered trade union of Aotearoa New Zealand script writers. NZWG is committed to working in a way that adheres to the spirit and principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. NZWG is a member of the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG), Council of Trade Unions (CTU NZ) and WeCreate. New Zealand Writers Guild (NZWG) screenwriters cannot be categorised as one homogenous group; they are communities of talented workers who live all over Aotearoa. They are a mix of ages, backgrounds, and experience levels – from students, emerging through to experienced career professionals whose living is made on the creation of ideas inked onto pages. These screenwriters’ ideas are formed in many ways, from pure imagination, to lived experiences and inspiration from many other sources. The primary objective of NZWG is to establish and enhance the minimum working conditions and compensation rates for writers. Over the decades, NZWG has achieved significant milestones in supporting writers. In the early 1980s, NZWG played a pivotal role in initiating and negotiating the Theatre Writers agreement. In the early 2000s, NZWG successfully negotiated the NZWG Model Contract with the Screen Production and Development Association (SPADA). Become a NZWG member

Each of the copyright collecting societies, Australasian Performing Right Association Limited (“APRA”), Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society Limited (“AMCOS”), Phonographic Performance Company of Australia Limited (“PPCA”), Copyright Agency Limited (“Copyright Agency”), Audio-Visual Copyright Society Limited (“Screenrights”), Australian Writers’ Guild Authorship Collecting Society Limited (“AWGACS”) and Australian Screen Directors Authorship Collecting Society Limited (“ASDACS”), subscribes to a code of conduct. In its original form, the Code came into effect in July 2002. The most recent update came into effect on 20 May 2025. A copy of the Code is available on each Society’s website or from the Code of Conduct for Copyright Collecting Societies website https://www.copyrightcodeofconduct.org.au/code and can be downloaded or, if requested, a copy can be supplied by post. Compliance by participating collecting societies with the Code’s standards of conduct is the subject of an independent annual review. The Code Reviewer for this purpose is former Federal Court judge and former President of the Copyright Tribunal of Australia, The Hon Kevin Lindgren AM, KC. His current task is to review the Societies’ compliance with the Code during the period 1 July 2025 to 30 June 2026. The Code allows for interested parties to make submissions to the Code Reviewer concerning a collecting society’s compliance or non-compliance with the Code. If you wish to make a submission, please inform the Code Review Secretariat by email [note new email address]: (secretariat@copyrightcodeofconduct.org.au). The Secretariat will send you details about the procedure for making a submission. The closing date for completing the submission process is 31 July 2026.

Joint statement from AMPAL, APRA AMCOS, ARIA PPCA, Australian Publishers Association, Australian Society of Authors, Australian Writers’ Guild, AWG Authorship Collecting Society, Copyright Agency and Screenrights. The Copyright Advisory Group (CAG) is seeking concessions that go significantly further than what the Australian Government consulted introduced into Parliament. Friday 20 March 2026 – Australian authors, songwriters, recording artists, visual artists, photographers, illustrators, playwrights, screenwriters and producers are in the sights of the country’s most powerful education bureaucracies. State and territory education departments and private schools, backed by a taxpayer-funded lobbying operation, are pushing to expand copyright exceptions well beyond agreed amendments to the Copyright Act, and it is creators who will pay the price. The Copyright Advisory Group (CAG), staffed by government lawyers, funded by taxpayers, and representing the combined weight of every state and territory government and every major private, Catholic and independent school, is seeking concessions that go significantly further than what the Australian Government consulted on, agreed to and introduced into Parliament. The intent of the Bill was clear: To confirm that an existing exception allowing copyright material to be used in classrooms without payment applies equally in online settings. The Explanatory Memorandum is explicit and the amendments were not intended to touch existing licensing arrangements. The Senate inquiry agreed, recommending the Bill pass as drafted. But now, the education sector wants more. The education sector spends more on cleaning schools each year than it pays to access the entirety of human creative output. And still, its position is that this is not enough. The answer is not to take money from some of the lowest-paid workers in the country. For just under $30 per student per year, every student in every Australian school has access to everything ever created, every book ever written, virtually every song ever recorded, every image ever published, every article, every poem, every illustration, every play, every documentary or film ever made and every screenplay. Not a curated subset. Not a limited catalogue. Everything. Teachers can copy it, share it, stream it in any classroom, in any format, online or in person, without seeking permission and without paying a cent beyond that flat annual fee. By any measure, it is one of the most comprehensive and accessible education licences anywhere in the world. This is not the first time. The same arguments were deployed in 2016. They resurfaced during COVID-19, when the same lobby sought to use the pandemic as cover. They are now being run again, in perfect step with big tech’s push to weaken creator protections in the development of Artificial Intelligence. The timing, each time, is not coincidental. The target, each time, is the same. The earnings of artists and creators who have no comparable institutional power, no government funding, and no capacity to absorb further cuts to their income. The author whose book is being copied, the songwriter and recording artist whose work is being streamed in a classroom, the filmmaker and television creators whose work inspires, the illustrator whose images fill the curriculum already provide access for a sum that would not buy a single textbook or a school uniform shirt. Asking creators to carry costs that are not theirs to bear is not progress. It is cost-shifting dressed up as principle. Local Australian creator groups including AMPAL, APRA AMCOS, ARIA PPCA, Australian Publishers Association, Australian Society of Authors, Australian Writers’ Guild, AWG Authorship Collecting Society, Copyright Agency and Screenrights will continue to oppose any expansion of copyright exceptions, in this Bill, in the CAIRG process or in any future reform, that undermines the licensing framework and further reduces the already modest incomes of the people who make Australian creative life possible.

Australia’s screen creatives have today welcomed the passing of the  Communications Legislation Amendment (Australian Content Requirement for Subscription Video On Demand (Streaming) Services) Bill 2025  through Parliament. The legislation means streaming services are now included in the requirement to make a certain level of Australian content, via spending a percentage of their expenditure on new local drama, children’s, and documentary programs. Australian Writers’ Guild ( AWG ) and Australian Writers’ Guild Authorship Collecting Society ( AWGACS ) CEO  Claire Pullen  said, “This is a watershed moment for Australia’s screen industry. This will give our members and the entire creative community more certainty around their careers, and the industry here at home.” “Securing local content quotas is a significant step forward in levelling the playing field for streamers and broadcasters, and it acts as a strong reminder of what we’ve been continually told – that Australians want to see more Aussie content on their screens,” said Pullen. “We congratulate the Albanese Government, Arts Minister Tony Burke, Communications Minister Anika Wells and the many members of Parliament who’ve supported the campaign over the years on this achievement.” The Australian Writers’ Guild has worked alongside fellow screen industry guilds and members of the Make It Australian campaign for local content requirements for streaming video on demand services (SVODs) since September 2017. AWG President and Logie Award-winning showrunner  Peter Mattessi  said, “This has been a long and hard-fought campaign, and we thank the many writer members, our fellow creatives and industry leaders who’ve given of their time and expertise to advocate for our industry and for Australian stories over the last eight years.” “This legislation is the first step in building a stronger, more robust Australian screen industry. There’s more to do, but this is an exciting moment, and an opportunity to position Australian stories at the centre of national and international conversations,” said Mattessi. “As we head into 2026 and planning for a new National Cultural Policy, we are pleased to have this vital piece of Revive marked off the list so we can continue what we do best – telling great Australian stories.” AWGACS President  Sam Meikle  said, “The fight to preserve the vital place for Australian stories on Australian screens has been won. This is the first step in seeing more Australian stories, and guaranteeing career pathways for Australian screen workers – roundly known to be among the best in the world. We make great television. Now the world will get to see more of it, and Australian writers are ready to lead the charge.”