Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I present the explanatory memorandum to the bill and move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 amends the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the BSA) to give the Australian Communications and Media Authority (the ACMA) the discretion to consider late applications for renewals of community broadcasting licences that are made up until the expiry date of the licence.

Currently the ACMA has no discretion to accept an application for renewal of a community broadcasting licence after 26 weeks prior to the licence expiry date, regardless of the circumstances giving rise to the late application.

The amendments would give the ACMA the discretion to consider late applications for the renewal of a community broadcasting licence if:

(a)

the licensee makes the application before the licence’s expiry date;

(b)

the application is accompanied by a written statement setting out the licensee’s reasons for the lateness of the application; and

(c)

the ACMA considers that there are exceptional circumstances that warrant the consideration of the application.

Once a late application is made, ACMA may extend the current licence for up to 26 weeks while it considers the renewal application. This provision will ensure that ACMA is not required to assess late applications in a shorter period and under the pressure of a deadline for the licence ending.

The purpose of the amendment is to give the ACMA the discretion to consider late applications while ensuring that the regulator still has adequate time to consider the merits of the renewal application.

The amendments will allow the ACMA to renew the licence of a community broadcaster, providing a valuable public service, even if the renewal application is late, as long as the lateness is explained to ACMA’s satisfaction. The amendments recognise that many community broadcasters have limited administrative resources.

However, it is not expected that the acceptance of late applications will be standard practice but instead that ACMA’s discretion to accept late applications would only be exercised in exceptional circumstances.

These proposed amendments will prevent situations where ACMA cannot consider applications to renew community broadcasting licences if the licensee misses the application deadline.

This happened to 3CCC Bendigo—a community broadcaster for 25 years. ACMA could not even consider renewing their licence in 2006 because they lodged a late application.

To prevent this type of situation reoccurring, the proposed amendments will allow ACMA to consider late applications. This will ensure that community broadcasters that are providing a valuable public service will not lose their licence.

Community broadcasting provides important services to local communities and supports diversity in the broadcasting sector. It gives voice to small communities and an outlet for contemporary Australian music, and the wide variety of programs enriches our Australian culture.

These amendments assist this valuable sector, and I understand that they will have the support of both sides of the House. I commend the bill to the House.

Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am particularly pleased to be able to join in the debate today on the Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008. As the Minister for Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Local Government has outlined, this is a common-sense bill which is designed to enhance the continued operation of community radio. In our respective electorates we all have community radio stations. These stations operate in the community using the services of volunteers. They have very few paid staff, but they do provide a valuable service to the community. There are different sorts of community radio stations—there are those based on a geographic area; there are some that are religious radio stations; there are some that assist ethnic people—but all of them in their own way carry out a particularly important role. It is not appropriate that we always ought to have the same rules applying to community radio as perhaps to other broadcasters.

Because these community radio stations are often run by volunteers who are not paid, it is not realistic to expect that they will always dot the i’s and cross the t’s as you would require of a commercial broadcasting operation. It is a pity that adequate flexibility has not been in the legislation until now. I believe this bill, which is supported by both sides of the House, ought to pass through the parliament as quickly as possible so that community radio can continue in areas where perhaps some of the technical provisions with respect to the renewal of licences have not been fully attended to. I am very pleased to support the bill and I commend it to the chamber and to honourable members.

Chris Hayes (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to commend the Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 to the House. This bill is essentially common sense. It gives the Australian Communications and Media Authority discretion in relation to issues of late application. Bearing in mind that community radio stations are essentially run by honorary organisations with no paid administration staff, complying with the letter of the law when it comes to the deadline for making an application for the renewal of a licence sometimes does not go the way we would like, as you would find in many situations involving non-professional activity and its administration.

Whilst a number of these radio stations do a very good job, in the past they have, unfortunately, been late with their applications and there is currently no discretion with respect to the ability of the Australian Communications and Media Authority to deal with late payment. That being the case, this amendment is certainly an improvement to the act. It grants discretion to the ACMA to be able to deal with late applications for licences. It is something that is overdue, particularly when the ACMA, by and large, in dealing with these matters is dealing with a number of honorary organisations.

This bill gives discretion to the ACMA. This is supported by both sides of the parliament and will make for a tidier approach in dealing with the vast majority of community broadcasters throughout this nation. I commend the bill to the House.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Broadband, Communication and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I add my voice to the support for the Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008, which will amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to give the Australian Communications and Media Authority the discretion to consider late applications for the renewal of community broadcasting licences up to the expiry date of the licence. This is not some after-expiry-date amendment which allows for further applications; it provides greater accommodation for community broadcasters to apply for a renewal of their licences while they still have a valid licence.

The bill was introduced into the parliament by the coalition government on 13 September 2007; however, it was not debated. The bill had not passed parliament when parliament was prorogued on 15 October 2007 and, as a result, the bill lapsed. It has been reintroduced in substantially the same form. I understand that there may be some minor technical variations to it but essentially it aims to achieve the same objectives as the bill introduced by the coalition.

Part 6 of the Broadcasting Services Act provides for the allocation and renewal of community broadcasting licences. When renewing or deciding to renew a community broadcasting licence, the Australian Communications and Media Authority—or ACMA, as we refer to it—takes into account a range of issues, which include the extent to which the proposed or existing service would meet existing and perceived needs of the community within the licence areas; the nature and diversity of community interests; the nature and diversity of alternative broadcasting services within that licence area; and the licensee’s capacity to continue to provide the service.

Currently ACMA has no discretion to consider late applications for renewal of community broadcasting licences, regardless of the circumstances that have given rise to the late application. Most broadcasting licensees usually have appropriate and adequate administrative staff and office processes to ensure that the necessary licence renewal requirements are followed and met. However, currently, if an application is not submitted by the due time, there is the potential for a community broadcasting licensee who is playing a valuable role and providing an important service to the community to lose their licence, even if the licensee can give a valid reason for the late application.

Section 90(1) of the Broadcasting Services Act provides that ACMA can renew a community broadcasting licence if the licensee makes an application for renewal by submitting the approved form. ACMA writes to the community broadcasting licensee 58 weeks before the expiry of their licence to request that they submit the application form. Section 90(1) provides that, as a general rule, a licensee must apply for the renewal of the licence within the following time frames. The earliest date to apply is one year before the licence is due to expire—so within about six weeks of being notified of it. The latest due date to apply is the first of the following times: 26 weeks before the licence is due to expire or a time that is notified in writing by the licensee to ACMA. So there is a window within which these licence renewal applications need to be submitted under the law as it currently stands.

This bill will insert some new provisions that provide for exceptional circumstances for late application. Late application is somewhere less than 26 weeks before the current licence runs out. A request to have the licence renewed within those parameters needs to be supported by a submission from the licensee explaining just why the application is late. ACMA needs to take into account these exceptional circumstances. It looks for reasons, to be given by the licensee, for the late lodgement of the application, a sense of the number of paid staff employed by the licensee—that is, their capacity to have met the general licensing requirements that they had not met on this occasion—and any other matters that ACMA considers relevant.

Essentially, this in no way reduces the function and purpose of the community licensee but actually recognises that the process might not always be suited to and may well be too rigid for some of the community licensees to comply in the window of time within which they can seek to have their current licence renewed. We have heard the example of 3CCC in Bendigo, a community broadcaster which, I understand, is highly valued by the local community. In my own local community 3RPP is one of these broadcasters. They have been providing a very localised focus to their content for many years and also provide some content that is not available through commercial broadcasting options. Importantly, they provide a valuable training resource for members of our community looking to pursue a career in broadcasting. It would be just appalling if the application was not received in time, within that tight 52- to 26-week window before the licence expires, and therefore deemed to be late, even though it was still within a valid licence period. This is common sense, as the member for Werriwa mentioned. It is an important recognition that there may be legitimate circumstances where a community licensee cannot comply with that time frame—that rather specific window that exists in the act. It is not as if this is an invitation for people to ignore those provisions, because ACMA needs an appropriate period of time to make sure that the very purpose for which the licence was issued in the first place remains valid. So those criteria I touched on earlier—the extent to which the service meets existing or perceived needs within the community, the diversity of community interest, what may be available as alternative broadcasting services and the licensee’s capacity to actually provide that service—are all still very valid and very crucial, key criteria that need to be met. This is just to make sure that the opportunity that people have to be assessed against those criteria is not lost because there has been some overrun on the time frame.

This is an important window into some of the challenges community broadcasting currently faces. I know it is particularly topical in the area of community television. Access 31 is the Western Australian community television station. This Friday, I understand, they are meeting to decide their fate. Some of the uncertainty that has arisen out of the availability of their digital spectrum and of what broadcasting support may be available to them has caused Access 31 to consider whether they should be going into voluntary liquidation, and that will be canvassed by members of Access 31 at a meeting on Friday.

The issue that arises here is one of a lack of clarity about the transition strategy for community broadcasting into the digital age. The previous government, with its digital action agenda, was very clear and identified a need for assistance to make sure community broadcasters could make that migration from the analog space into the digital space. One of the key parts of that, though, was in fact channel A. You would be aware that the current government has—and I hope I get the term correct—‘stepped back’ from channel A and channel B processes, whatever that means. What I know it does mean is that they are not stepping forward to move on channel A and channel B considerations.

What the previous government always envisaged was that amongst a range of services to be accommodated on channel A there would be community television—that Channel 31 in Western Australia and certainly Channel 31 in Melbourne, which I visited, were looking forward to being part of an aggregate offering over channel A that could piggyback on the channel A broadcasting platforms and then assist their ongoing engagement with their audience as people take up the invitation to purchase digital televisions. I read some of the blogs about digital TV, certainly around the Access 31 issue. There are accounts of people who are flipping through channels on the digital spectrum and on digital services and, of course, they are not coming across community television because they have not made that migration. I have heard that the audience share of Access 31 is reducing because, as people flip between channels, they are not coming across the community television offer, as they might have done in the days of analog.

It is important that community television gets certainty. This bill provides one area of risk that we can manage, and we can put common sense into the process, but really the challenge facing community broadcasting is how they are going to be part of the digital broadcasting future. The previous government had a clear program. The digital action agenda set out a need for support and assistance that the technology used by these broadcasters would need in order to be converted and replaced with digital technology and the availability of spectrum. The government looked at how they would then be accommodated in the transmission systems that were around.

I mentioned how community television was very much a part of an aggregated offer on channel A but, now that this current government has stepped back from that, community television is wondering where it fits into that digital transition future. I call on Senator Conroy to address this. In my view, he has rather courageously nominated a final switch-over date to digital television. That deadline of 2013 is there and people’s minds are focused on it, and that may be a positive thing. But people such as the community broadcasters know that, when the lights get shut off, they do not know how they will keep their transmission going. So what is missing is the plan. We have a deadline and no plan. I think the current government’s criticism of the previous government was that we had a plan but no deadline. Plans are important when there is so much involved, and we need a plan very quickly, particularly with the stepping back from channel A and channel B. We need Minister Conroy to detail his digital bailout plan, which was carried on Channel 10 news in Perth. I think that might have been a rather herculean summation of his media release. In his defence, I do not think Senator Conroy actually said he was offering a bailout plan, but that was what was carried on the news in Perth. More particularly, it does highlight the fact that a plan of some description is urgently needed so community broadcasters know how they will migrate, how they will be allowed and supported in digital transmission and what will be involved by way of assistance in that costly transition upgrade.

I mentioned that the previous government was planning to auction TV spectrum channel A for narrowcasting, and that was the perfect Trojan Horse through which community television could be brought into the digital transition age. There was an acknowledgement in the digital action agenda that some resourcing was required and would be provided as we moved forward. None of that clarity is available under the current government’s plan, and that is something I would certainly encourage the government and Senator Conroy to turn their minds to.

For Perth’s Access 31, D-day is Friday. Contemplating whether to go into liquidation will be a very worrying deliberation on Thursday—a deliberation brought about because of the lack of clarity about just how their broadcasting future fits within this transition from analogue to digital. I commend Senator Cormann, who has been very active in his interactions with Access 31 in Perth. He has certainly written to me about the challenges that they face and their efforts to have the current government address this transition challenge now that the previous government’s plan with channel A and the digital action agenda has been put back or has been stepped back from. We have this deadline of 2013 with digital television switch-over. We have audience share disappearing as people are not quite sure where to pick up their community TV. Those who browse across a range of channels, if they have a digital TV, are not browsing across community television. That is a very compelling and important issue that needs a timely response. I commend this bill as an important practical step and invite people to turn their minds, once this bill has passed, to a more immediate and compelling challenge—that is, just what community television can look forward to in terms of its digital future.

James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The main purpose of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 is to introduce discretion for the Australian Communications and Media Authority to accept late licence renewal applications from community broadcasters. Under section 90(1) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 the Australian Communications and Media Authority has a discretion to renew a community broadcasting licence. Section 90(1A) provides that a renewal application must be ‘no earlier than one year before the licence is due to expire’ and no later than either 26 weeks before the expiry date or ‘a time notified in writing’ by the Australian Communications and Media Authority—whichever is earlier. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has been advised by the Australian Government Solicitor that there is a moderate to high risk that a court would find invalid a licence renewed following a late application, even one lodged only a short period out of time. The later an application is lodged, the higher the risk of a court finding invalidity.

The Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 amends the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to give the Australian Communications and Media Authority the discretion to consider late applications for the renewal of community broadcasting licences up to the expiry date of the licence. The amendments recognise that many community broadcasters have limited administrative resources. However, it is not expected that the acceptance of late applications will be standard practice; instead, it is expected that the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s discretion to accept late applications would only be exercised in exceptional circumstances.

I personally have been involved in community broadcasting since 1994; I spent 10 years on Mackay 4CRM community radio, which is wholly run by volunteers. Obviously, it is a hard task to manage and administer a volunteer staff and a service that offers a live-to-air—not prerecorded—facility from six o’clock in the morning until 12 midnight. I commend the work of all the volunteers, particularly one of the founders of 4CRM Mackay, John Picker, who was previously a presenter on local Mackay ABC Radio before retiring and setting this up as a project. I really do commend his work. He has established something that has stood the test of time.

Unfortunately, in the seat of Dawson we do not have any community TV—none at all. We do not have the facilities or the guidance to get that up and running. We would love to see community TV in the seat of Dawson.

Without any further ado, I commend the work of the volunteers in all broadcasting sectors, whether it be radio or TV, and I commend this bill to the House.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to thank members for their contributions to this debate; it is a valuable piece of legislation. I thank those opposite for recognising that the Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 is a common-sense amendment that will improve the Broadcasting Services Act 1992. I welcome the support expressed by those opposite for the community broadcasting sector, which contributes so much to our Australian broadcasting culture.

The bill is a significant step forward, providing the Australian Communications and Media Authority with the discretion to consider, up until the expiry date of the licence, late applications for the renewal of community based broadcasting licences. Without the amendment, there is the real possibility that good community broadcasting stations which provide a valuable public service could unreasonably lose their licences. It is the primary purpose of these amendments to avoid the situation where a community broadcaster providing a valuable public service loses its licence as a result of a late application, where the broadcaster can show good reasons why that application is late. The amendments recognise that many community broadcasters have limited administrative resources. However, it is not expected that the acceptance of late applications will be standard practice; instead, it is expected that ACMA’s discretion to accept late applications would only be exercised in exceptional circumstances. This bill demonstrates the government’s commitment to community broadcasting as an essential component of Australian broadcasting.

I note that the shadow minister for communications has mentioned the situation faced by Channel 31 in Perth. Channel 31 is an outstanding part of our broadcasting community in Perth. Over the last few weeks, I have had extensive discussions with Channel 31 about the situation it faces. What I have learned is as follows: the situation that Channel 31 faces, which is dire, is a situation that has been in the making for the past few years. On the one hand, we hear of the representations made to the shadow minister on behalf of Channel 31 by coalition senators, but in reality what we know is that Channel 31 was left in the lurch by the former government through funding shortfalls and decisions—and a lack of decisions—which have created a critical situation for that broadcaster in Perth. That broadcaster has tremendous support from not just young people who are interested in the media, interested in broadcasting and interested in careers in television or radio and cut their teeth in community broadcasting but also community organisations, which can get some exposure of their issues and have light shone on them.

The Australian government is working on a pathway to digital broadcasting for community TV. I will stress again that it is a little disingenuous for the shadow minister to cry crocodile tears for community TV when the former government left it in the lurch. It is significant that this bill has such support from both sides of the House. It is common sense, practical and pragmatic. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.