James Stevens (Sturt, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in favour of the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Community Radio) Bill 2022, and I eagerly anticipate its passing because, as other members have outlined, we all have important community radio stations in our electorates that are providing excellent services for the dedicated listeners that they have.

Earlier, during 90-second statements, I talked about the very proud Italian community that I have in my electorate, and I made the point that the recent census confirmed, once again, that my electorate has the largest number of people of Italian ancestry of any electorate in the country. That very strong community is very well served by, in fact, two community radio stations in Italian language—Radio Italiana 531 and Radio Italia Uno. For my sins I am lucky enough to be interviewed on a semiregular basis on both of those stations, as are politicians of all persuasions in South Australia—state, federal and local.

It's really important to understand—and I was discussing this with the Italian ambassador yesterday morning—that one of the issues that we have with the great generation of migrants who came from countries like Italy after the Second World War is that they are now entering the twilight years of their lives and are particularly needing and availing themselves of the aged-care system. There are some significant language challenges with CALD communities—certainly in my electorate. The Italian language is the first language in many homes, and many people have elderly Italian parents or grandparents who perhaps live with them or are now in aged-care facilities, and who have always had Italian as their primary language. Sometimes with the onset of older age, and particularly with issues like dementia, some of those who did have English lose that English, and the Italian language, in the case of my community, becomes their only language again. It's very important that we've got and are resourcing services to support people who find themselves in that circumstance, so the two Italian language community radio stations provide that connection. It is a real significant access for those to be able to turn on the radio any day and listen to local broadcasting in Italian language, talking about issues that are contemporary to the day and geographically relevant to South Australia, rather than listening to other Italian language news services, which they do as well and it is very important that SBS and others provide, that might be giving them news from Italy and continental Europe. They want to stay connected to the South Australian community and hear about important issues and things that are happening locally, whilst equally having that service provided in the Italian language.

It's also very significant for when residents get to the point at which they can't necessarily participate physically in certain community activities, and in my Italian community, obviously, significant religious festas within the Catholic Church are very important to them, attending both the services and the associated festa when they celebrate the various saint feast days and other significant religious ceremonies. Both of the Italian language radio stations always make sure they broadcast from those events both the services themselves and the other formalities and of course commentary of what's happening through the day. It keeps a really important connection for those who are no longer in a position to physically attend, because of frailty, some of those events—that they have access to them.

As I point out, I've had the opportunity many times and always take the opportunity, when it's offered to me, to go in and be interviewed by them. My Italian is not suitably broadcast quality, but they're very good at translating—well, I wouldn't know, of course, so I assume, when what I say is being translated, it reflects accurately what I've said. It also gives an opportunity for those listening to call in, talkback, very interactive, and they have the opportunity to put questions to me, as a federal representative, as they do with many other Labor members that are equally as dedicated and make sure they take opportunities to go in there—state members, local government members. Those stations are a really great example from my community of community radio providing the type of service that is so treasured and critical in my community.

Other members have shared already in this debate exactly the same sorts of stories, and it really does underline the breadth of community connection that they provide. It obviously is very different, depending on the community. I've talked about a particular important language service that is provided through my community radio. Other country members in particular have talked about the services that are provided where it would just mean there was no access to that same sort of information if it weren't provided through community.

This bill is a very sensible set of minor measures that just give a lot more certainty to those radio stations. It puts them in a position where, with a lot of things that were really practice—and it never was intended by government to abandon that practice—this makes it a lot clearer in the legislation that any risks that they could have been nervous about regarding their licences, reapplying for them, having to compete for them et cetera are not going to be undertaken by government. There was never an intention to do that, as has been made clear, but this just changes the legislation to make sure that it removes all doubt.

We know how hard the people that run these types of organisations work. They are out raising money all the time because, of course, being community stations, they need to raise money. They get a lot of sponsorship from the community. They get a lot of support. They are staffed by volunteers. They tend to remunerate almost no-one in the business. A lot of people are very dedicated to being in there, to keep them ticking over. It's going to be a challenge for some into the future.

My Italian stations are a good example. They need people with the time, language capability and technical skills et cetera to be able to fill the seven-day-long time slots, and they need all the support they can get. They are very happy being self-sufficient, the ones I mentioned in my electorate. They get a lot of great support. But we need to make their life as easy as we can, and this certainly goes directly towards that. It takes away some uncertainty, giving them some security, not having them worried or anxious about these issues.

When they're having their monthly board meetings and talking about their challenges and opportunities, we don't want them to be consumed by or concerned about any issues on the longevity or future of the regulatory regime within which they operate. By making these changes, I'm very confident we'll achieve some greater peace of mind for the people who do excellent work in running these community radio stations. With that contribution, I commend the bill the House.

See this speech in context