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

Mr President, my question is to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy. I refer the minister to his media release of December 2010 regarding antisiphoning reforms, which states:

In early 2011, details on these quality guarantees for free-to-air coverage of AFL and NRL matches will be announced and legislation to amend the anti-siphoning scheme will be introduced into the Parliament.

Can the minister now outline why, two years past his self-imposed deadline, he has failed to pass legislation and will he finally confirm that, after creating significant uncertainty for stakeholders and stringing this process out for 2½ years, he has given up on legislating these reforms?