Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Hansard source

What is tragic, Senator Conroy, is the way in which you and the Labor Party manage proceedings in this place. What is tragic, Senator Conroy, is that you cannot manage to run your own legislative agenda in a sensible way. What is tragic is that you cancelled sitting days last year, and then we come in here this year and we are told that we have three minutes to debate legislation. That is what is tragic, Senator Conroy. What is tragic is that you do not accept that people want to have sensible debates in this place and that people on this side want to talk about issues about regional radio. On this side we have many senators who know that regional radio services are a lifeblood to regional communities. Regional radio services are the way people get local news, the way they hear about local sports results, the way local communities get to stay together and the way local communities get all of the information they deserve to hear. We think it is important that regional radio functions in a viable and sensible way. We have approached this legislation in a constructive sense. We have engaged in negotiations with the government. We have done this in a way to make sure that we get a good outcome for regional radio—one that preserves local content and regional radio stations but helps with their commercial viability. I welcome that. I only wish that we had had the opportunity to examine just what this would really achieve and just what the impacts would be and to have a proper conversation about this legislation rather than the debacle that is taking place.