Stephen Jones (Whitlam, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Regional Services, Territories and Local Government) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that when he was communications minister, the government was warned that the government's cuts to the SBS could have an impact on the ability of Australians to watch the World Cup? This included SBS CEO, Michael Ebeid, in Senate estimates in 2014, warning that future World Cup coverage could be at risk because of the government's cuts. Will the Prime Minister now apologise to football fans who are complaining about second-rate coverage of the World Cup?

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm not going to call the Prime Minister.

Honourable members interjecting—

I'm happy to hear from the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business on this subject in a second, but, as I heard the question, it asked the Prime Minister about his previous ministerial responsibilities.

Honourable members interjecting—

I'll call the Prime Minister.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think the most important thing to say about the World Cup is that we're all inspired by the determination of the Socceroos. They played the most expensive team in the world, France, and they came so close. I won't express any personal views about the video referee, but I think a fair-minded fan of the French team would recognise they were very fortunate to get that one-goal win, and we know that the Socceroos played so well. We congratulate them. I thank the honourable member for giving me the opportunity to do so here in the House of Representatives. We wish them all the best for the next game against Denmark and for the whole campaign.

As far as streaming is concerned, I'll confirm that today I spoke about this to the CEO of Optus, Allen Lew. He, obviously, acknowledges they've had some real problems with streaming from the Optus platform. He believes he can fix it. He believes it will be fixed tonight, and, obviously, Australian soccer fans will be expecting Optus to deliver in that regard. Thank you very much again for asking the question. Go, the Socceroos!