Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I can guarantee that, unlike in the times when Senator Coonan was minister for communications, there is not a situation where a TV mogul picks up the phone and says, ‘This is what the policy’s going to be.’ We are driven by what is in the best interests of the public. We are interested in protecting Australian content and guaranteeing that Australian voices are going to continue to be heard in this ever-increasing diversity of media—from the internet, from newspapers, from radio and from the television sector. We are going to continue to develop policy in the best interests of the Australian public, and we are not going to be intimidated as were those opposite, who said, ‘Okay, we’ll start digital broadcasting in the year 2000, and by the time we get to, maybe, 2013 we might have a switch-off date for analog TV—13 years late.’ (Time expired)