Jackie Kelly (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I thank the member for Lowe for granting me leave to finish a few remarks which might touch on a few of the issues that he has already mentioned. As I was saying, the Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts in its report Digital television: who’s buying it? also recommended that a testing and conformance centre for digital television equipment be established, with the Australian government to provide $1 million in seed funding in the first year. The committee urges the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts to continue to work with industry stakeholders to develop an appropriate model and set of objectives on which a new testing and conformance centre will be based. One of the recommendations is also for the One Watt Initiative to be fully implemented by the switch-off date.

A lot of the set-top boxes that we saw use eight, nine or 10 watts in standby mode. The drain in energy consumption when 15 million analog sets acquire a set-top box, unless we move to the One Watt Initiative for sets in standby mode, is quite big and we would like to see a move incorporating more of the set-top box into DVD and VHS in standby mode. I think that is a real challenge for the Western world with a lot of these adaptations to our TVs and how much power they use in standby mode.

The committee is aware that there is a great deal of confusion amongst consumers concerning digital television. The committee noted that energy-rating and water-rating label schemes are very useful guides for consumers in assessing and analysing different products in the market and that a similar scheme could apply to televisions and digital reception equipment. The report recommends the establishment of a mandatory labelling scheme that will force manufacturers and retailers to accurately identify the capabilities of televisions and digital reception products they sell. So, if as Miss Kelly from the western suburbs of Sydney I come to a retailer to buy a set-top box and I really do not know much about standard definition, high definition, one watt standby mode or what I should be looking for, there will be a little label on the product with ticks in the various effective boxes so that I can at least inquire and say, ‘Why wasn’t the high definition box ticked?’ and seek assurances from the retailer about what I am purchasing.

Finally, the report recommends that a digital black spots program be established to replace the analog black spots program. It is fairly pointless to continue fixing analog black spots when we are moving to digital by 2010 and we really need to be reaching out and fixing digital black spots. The recommendations outlined in the report are designed to promote the uptake of digital television. Internationally, the digital television revolution is already happening. If as a nation Australia is to access the enhancements, television quality and production opportunities that are available elsewhere in the world, then now is the time to buy into the digital television revolution. Again, I thank everyone who was involved in preparing the report and I commend Digital television: who’s buying it? to the House.

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