Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question, because Senator Conroy seemed to be trailing off there a bit. Given that the minister has pointedly failed to guarantee that he has not suggested or implied to free-to-air networks that the value of their licence fees could be impacted by how they publicly respond to changes to the antisiphoning list, does the minister truly believe it is justifiable to use threats that could cost networks millions of dollars to try to silence criticism of his decisions? Doesn’t this just amount to a form of blackmail? (Time expired)