Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the World Cup telecasts earlier this year we all saw the unprecedented success of the Socceroos, and there was unprecedented interest in soccer by our entire nation. We all now want our national team to do well and to be supported not only by a financially secure organisation but also by young Australians watching their heroes and developing over many years the skills that may enable them to play the sport at a professional level.

Thanks to this government, the Australian public and Australian soccer fans will not see the Socceroos’ qualifying games on free-to-air television again. Games in qualifying rounds used to be protected from competition with pay TV on an ad hoc basis, despite the ongoing calls of the Australian Broadcasting Authority that they be properly protected through the anti-siphoning list. The ABA recommended to the government that each international soccer match involving the senior Australian representative team and the senior representative team of another country be protected. That was the advice from the experts five years ago, and it did not change.

The government continued to ignore the growing and unwavering public demand to see our Socceroos engaged in international competition. The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts was so dismissive of Australian soccer and so dismissive of Australia’s love for the game that she did not even bother to include the 2010 World Cup in the anti-siphoning list until subjected to intense pressure from the opposition and the public. Yet it is she who has said that the list consists of events of national importance and cultural significance. Can someone tell me why the Socceroos are not considered to be of national importance and cultural significance? She did not include the Socceroos’ World Cup qualifying matches on that list. She did not even include the 2010 World Cup final on the list.

I call on the minister and the Howard government to explain to Australian soccer fans how it can consider so many Australians’ primary sporting interests as unimportant and insignificant. How can the minister view the Socceroos, our national team, and their march towards the next World Cup as being of neither national importance nor cultural significance? How can this government treat the growing soccer viewing public with such contempt? Any federal government worth half its weight would be bending over backwards to support the development of soccer in the Australian community.

The Australian Broadcasting Authority has continually identified Australia’s international soccer competitions as events of national importance and cultural significance. I call on the minister and the government to represent the interests of millions of Australians and also to identify them as such and to demonstrate the Socceroos’ importance to Australia by means of the anti-siphoning list, and return competitions involving Australia’s national soccer team to free-to-air television at the earliest opportunity.