Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In rising to support the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 and related bills today I would ask the members of the Senate to cast their minds back about 20 years. Apart from the ageless nature of you, Mr Acting Deputy President Hutchins, a number of things have transpired over the last 20 years that I think we are wise to consider. There have been many changes in our world. Many of these changes have in fact benefited the Australian public and many of these changes have in fact been introduced by this government. If we want to remember a few of these things, we can remark briefly on the reduction in taxation payments for many Australians. This government has certainly made a massive change to what was taking place in this country some 20 years ago. Interest rates have also been reduced from 17 per cent under the Keating-Beazley government down to around seven per cent today. Unemployment has also been reduced quite significantly. But there are a number of relics of the past that do remain. One of these of course is the Australian Labor Party. But, aside from that, there are also some relics in our media ownership laws.

These laws were introduced to ostensibly contain media barons. The politics of envy was no more apparent than when they were brought about, when we had the ‘queens of screen’ and the ‘princes of print’ appeals. This is a historic attitude. It is an attitude that is completely out of touch with today’s society and the media available to everyone in today’s society. I think we need to consider these amendments very much on their merits. I would ask the Labor Party to consider their commitment to free, effusive and open exchange of ideas and to encourage foreign news investment and media investment in this country because, despite what some will tell you in this chamber, opening our shores to foreign investment and to people building productive businesses here has been an absolute boon for this country.

The media reforms are very important in that regard because we need to make sure that we are an effective and competitive nation not only in the distribution of information across many media platforms but also in maintaining our place in the information flow across the world. I support foreign investment in this country. It is going to bring new players into this game, particularly into some of the media areas such as television and newspapers. It is going to bring new services to regional areas and some of the metropolitan areas as well because, in a place like Adelaide, a fine place—the people of South Australia are very well served by many good members of parliament and many good senators, and they have been served very well over a number of years—