House debates

Wednesday, 20 March 2013

Bills

Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (News Media Diversity) Bill 2013; Second Reading

1:29 pm

Photo of Sid SidebottomSid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Hansard source

No thanks. In assessing whether a transaction is likely to result in a substantial lessening of diversity of voices, factors the advocate would likely consider include the extent of the applicant's control or likely control over two or more news media voices as a result of the control event—that is, the breadth or concentration of that person's control whether alone or in concert with others. Why would you not? We have enough concentration as it is. We all support more diversity, so why would you not support that? It defies logic. I do not understand the criticism. The advocate would also consider whether the control event materially changes the overall or relative diversity of controllers for the affected news media voices—again, logical, responsible—and, finally, a total level of diversity of controllers across all registered news media voices as a result of a control event or across the spectrum of news media voices. (Time expired)

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