Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I believe there is a unique perspective in representing an electorate in Western Sydney that was hit so hard by this year's lockdown and representing the Australian Labor Party in a portfolio that is my passion. The communications sector is fundamental to our economy and our society. It is an essential industry that will forever influence the quality of life that Australians enjoy. In this context—and coming from a background in local government, where I was once a councillor and Deputy Mayor of Blacktown, a diverse, multicultural and, at times, challenged region—there are few policies which in their own right encapsulate just about every aspect of the aspirations and vision that I and my Labor colleagues in Western Sydney hold dear for our local area.

I recently had the privilege of announcing, along with the Labor leader and Sally Sitou and Zhi Soon, Labor's respective candidates for Reid and Banks, such a policy that we will take to the people of Western Sydney and to the next election: the relocation of the Sydney based headquarters and studios of the Special Broadcasting Service, the SBS, from its current location in Artarmon on the Lower North Shore to Western Sydney. This is a joined-up proposition combining cities policy, multicultural affairs, the arts and communications. It's an idea that has been mooted for many years and has been a topic of discussion in the media and among a wide range of stakeholders.

The proposal is a feasibility study into the relocation of the SBS to Western Sydney alongside the provision of a multipurpose space for content creation and public use. The feasibility study will do a number of things, including examine the business case, benefits and risks of relocating the SBS Sydney studios from Artarmon to Western Sydney; assess the benefits of the provision of a multipurpose space for such content creation and public use; and incorporate a competitive bidding process between local government areas for determining the optimal site of any relocation in collaboration with the SBS. This proposal would explore the economic, social, cultural and financial dividend of a physical relocation of the SBS to the fastest-growing multicultural corridor in Australia. It's an initiative directed at building the inclusive Australia of tomorrow by addressing the imbalance in infrastructure, skilled jobs and cultural investment in Western Sydney, leveraging the public's investment in the nation's multicultural broadcaster.

Although Greater Western Sydney is one of the most diverse and fastest-growing regions in Australia, we are denied much of the taxpayer funded cultural capital that the inner city enjoys. Despite being home to 30 per cent of the population of the state, Western Sydney receives just a small percentage of Commonwealth arts program funding and the New South Wales government arts budget. The SBS, of course, is independent of government, and any decision to relocate is ultimately a matter for the SBS. Meanwhile, I do note that several Western Sydney councils are vying for the SBS to relocate to their area, which is why Labor's feasibility study will explore the best options to assist the SBS in any future relocation decision.

A fully functional media outlet based in Western Sydney could leverage the talent and diversity of the area, not only delivering smart multimedia jobs but enhancing the visibility of the SBS as a platform for migrant and ethnic communities in the heart of Western Sydney. It's therefore a most worthy proposition at a time when, as reported in the Western Weekender only recently, the New South Wales Liberal government is actually doing the opposite and moving jobs out of Western Sydney to the inner city, noting:

Local police communications operators are speaking out against a planned proposal to move their jobs answering Triple Zero calls to the Sydney CBD early next year.

Up to 70 staff members were informed via email last Tuesday that the Penrith Radio Operations Centre (ROC) would be closed and the team would be relocated to the Sydney Police Centre in Surry Hills.

I could say the contrast could not be clearer, but it was certainly made crystal clear by the very authentic and talented Sally Sitou, who articulated how the SBS and our public broadcasters generally had influenced her life and those of her Chinese-Lao family. It's only Labor representatives, people like Sally Sitou and Zhi Soon, who have the foresight and the energy to take their local communities from strength to strength with such holistic and forward-thinking policies.

It's important to note that, when the former Prime Minister Paul Keating opened the SBS building in Artarmon over 25 years ago, it was actually to help mainstream the SBS by moving it closer to other TV networks. A quarter of a century later and other TV networks have relocated and SBS is a distinctive, dynamic and successful multicultural platform and digital broadcaster that stands on its own two feet. Australia should be optimising and leveraging our public institutions like the SBS to promote inclusive communities and strengthen public media, and that is what this policy will do.