Jan McLucas (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Aged Care, Disabilities and Carers) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, Senator Coonan. I also congratulate her on her promotion to Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate. I refer the minister to the government’s plans to repeal the cross-media laws, as outlined in her recent speech to the National Press Club. Can the minister confirm that, under her so-called diversity test, cross-media mergers would be allowed in regional Australia so long as at least four major media players remained? Can the minister also confirm that the application of this test in Queensland would see the number of media owners in Cairns fall from seven to four and in Bundaberg from six to four? Why does the minister believe that this sort of increased concentration of media ownership is in the public interest, especially the public interest of regional Queensland?