Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

Can I address a number of issues that have been raised. The member for Macquarie asked about Catalyst funding. In March this year, the minister announced the transfer of the majority of funds from Catalyst to the Australia Council. This will see a transfer of approximately $61 million in uncommitted funding over four years transferred to the Council from 2017-18, restoring the Australia Council's funding to a similar level as it stood prior to the 2015-16 budget decision. The Major Festivals Initiative and funding for the Australian World Orchestra will also transfer. The Department of Communications and the Arts will retain $2 million a year to provide an alternative avenue of funding for organisations that are not funded through the Australia Council. All current Catalyst funding agreements will be honoured and all applications received for Catalyst funding by 18 March 2017 are being assessed under the existing guidelines.

I was also asked about the national institutions. The Australian government is committed to supporting our national collecting institutions through the Public Service Modernisation Fund, and $48.5 million over three years commencing in 2017-18 is being directed to our national collecting institutions for capital works, the delivery of public programs and services and to develop shared services, capabilities and efficiencies. This funding is in addition to $16.4 million over three years commencing 2016-17 provided under the Public Service Modernisation Fund announced in December 2016 to support the National Library of Australia and its highly successful Trove program.

I was also asked about NBN in the electorate of Macquarie, and I can inform the House that in 2013 the number of people connected after Labor's 4½ years of chaotic and disorderly mismanagement of the NBN was 269. It now stands at 16,000, and the number of premises ready for service in Macquarie is 32,000. While there is more work to do, the position has improved out of sight in the time that the coalition have been in power, as compared to the chaotic, disorderly mess that we inherited from the Labor government.

Talking about chaotic and disorderly messes, let's turn to Labor's answer to the question of how as a nation we ought to deal with the phenomenal and fundamental forces of change which are sweeping through the media industry. The media industry is undergoing extraordinary change. Broadcasting, television and radio are subject to competition from global internet players that do not face any requirements for Australian content. This industry is undergoing an extraordinary amount of transformation and it is very important that there can be a competitive response to it. What is the shadow minister's careful and deeply thought through policy response? The shadow minister's careful and deeply thought through policy response is to put her head in the sand and pretend that the changes sweeping through the broadcasting sector are not occurring. She pretends that the unanimous view of companies right across the broadcasting sector and the media sector in Australia—an unprecedented degree of unanimity—is not happening. She is not prepared to engage with the comprehensive package that the minister has brought down: protecting Australian children by banning gambling advertising; undertaking a wideranging and comprehensive review of Australian and children's content; abolishing broadcasting licence fees for television and radio, allowing broadcasters to better compete with other media platforms; introducing a price for the use of spectrum by broadcasters that better reflects the value of Australia's limited spectrum resource; and some adjustments to the anti-siphoning scheme. Of course, this is a comprehensive package that includes the removal of outdated rules: the two-out-of-three rule and the 75 per cent reach rule.

The media sector is unanimous in its support for these measures, this integrated package to help them remain competitive. Unfortunately, the shadow minister has her head in the sand and is trying to pretend that these comprehensive changes to the sector are simply not occurring. This government is engaging with reality even if the opposition, tragically, is not.

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