Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

Thanks to the Prime Minister. The policy of the government hasn't changed. The principle that we're working towards is really simple. If you pick up your remote control at home, and you go to the ABC or SBS, you're guaranteed Australian content. If you go to the commercial TV stations, there's still some level of Australian content guaranteed. If you go to Foxtel, there's still Australian content. Yet, if you're sitting there with the same remote control, flicking to any of the streaming services, there's currently no guarantee of Australian content. This is something where people are aware of some of the different negotiations that the government has been doing, but, effectively, the objective is simple: no matter which remote control you're holding, Australian content should be at your fingertips.

The methods that we've used previously for other forms of Australian content don't match with the streaming services. For example, what we do on free-to-air TV, where you have particular times of day and guarantees, don't work when you're dealing with an on-demand service. Similarly, the guaranteed funding that happens to SBS or the ABC doesn't work for a commercial streaming service. So the methods have to be different, and that means we need to work through a series of different trade obligations. But, in doing so, the government's objective, which we've previously stated, remains completely on foot, and we hope to continue to be able to report more to the House.

See this speech in context