Ewen Jones (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Primary Television Broadcasting Service) Bill 2015. I got a Facebook message from Cam Laird, a fantastic professional photographer in my electorate, who wanted to know when we are going to be able to broadcast in high definition into Townsville. To be quite honest with you, I thought digital TV was digital TV; I did not know about standard definition and high definition.

So it came to pass that I plonked myself down towards Malcolm Turnbull's office, I sat down with his staff and I said, 'What is the caper with this thing?' They said what happened was when everybody switched over to digital TV, the government wanted to make sure it was as simple as humanly impossible. So someone in your electorate might have bought a set-top box or someone might have gone out and bought new digital television set. The government wanted to make sure the broadcasts were put through on standard definition so that we all got the picture right from the word go so that there was little as little disruption as humanly possible. Most people, by the time we had actually done the switchover to digital, were able to see the broadcasts. But now we have all got TV sets capable of transmitting high definition. Just the other night in this place, Samsung gave an innovations display. They had their big curved screen high-definition set. Whilst I love my TV, to watch something in that high-definition and to see what TV can actually do, it felt almost like you could step into this picture.

So when Cam came to me and wanted to know what we could do in this space, it was because, with his trained eye, he knew what was capable of being presented, he knew what we were trying to do, he knew what was out there ready to go and he knew we were not getting it.

The Minister for Communications, Malcolm Turnbull, said to me this is the perfect example of red tape reduction that we should be looking at. This is a common-sense move because everyone now has digital TV or if they do not then it is about time that they did, so there would be very few people inconvenienced by this. It means that free-to-air networks and Foxtel will be able to transmit in high definition into our homes. As the member for Hinkler said previously, it is fantastic for watching sport. It is also fantastic for watching films and documentaries and for the kids to watch The Wiggles. That is what it is all about. It is about us not being disadvantaged by being in the regions.

The pressure is now on the free-to-airs, especially with the football finals coming up, to ensure that they are prepared to broadcast in high definition into our regions. In my city of Townsville, 200,000 people want to be able to watch the Cowboys beat the Broncos this weekend.

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