Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Greens will be opposing the Communications Legislation Amendment (SBS Advertising Flexibility and Other Measures) Bill 2015, and I will briefly spell out why. Before I do, I want to ask the government to clarify one simple issue. I hope that Senator Fifield—or any of the other coalition senators who file in here this afternoon to explain themselves on this bill—will just be a bit clear about where this is all going.

The question is this: when will you actually be happy? Will you be happy if this bill is passed and SBS starts broadcasting the same amount of advertising during prime time as commercial TV stations? Is that what this is about? Will you be happy when SBS is allowed to have as much product placement in its programs as an episode of, say, MasterChefor The Block? Is that what this is about? Will you be happy if the creeping commercialisation of the SBS spreads to the ABC and we start seeing advertising breaks on 7.30? Is that where this is going? Will you be happy if SBS is eventually rolled into the ABC under the cover of meeting more of your efficiency targets? Will you be happy if both get privatised or broken up to create a fourth commercial free-to-air TV network? Is that what this is about?

What we want to know, in the course of the debate that is going to be undertaken this afternoon, is where is this all going and where will it end. I ask this because all indications are that this legislation is just one step along a path which Prime Minister Abbott and Minister Turnbull cooked up, presumably before the election. The Prime Minister wandered a bit off message in guaranteeing that this would not happen, but nonetheless that has not stopped them. It was a plan to deal with what they see as the problem of Australia's public broadcasters. They probably had a bit of help from the Institute of Public Affairs, which have openly called for the ABC to be broken up and put out to tender and for SBS simply to be privatised—just get rid of it. They probably also had a bit of help from Mr Murdoch, who wants public broadcasting done away with entirely in Australia because he does not like the idea of a taxpayer funded competitor. That is fine. Those are his business interests, and he is pretty good at prosecuting those.

Step 1 in this genius plan was to assure the Australian public on the eve of the federal election that there would be no cuts to ABC or SBS. Senator Conroy has canvassed that at reasonable length. You look people in the eye, you tell them that there will be no cuts and then right after the election you cut their budget. People loathe being lied to; they loathe it. People remember. You might think that people forget, but no, it is all being stored up; people remember what you said and then what you did. Step 2 was to implement the cuts anyway, under the cover of an efficiency dividend, and smash up the Australia Network. So that has gone now.

Step 3 is to significantly enhance the amount of advertising on SBS and formally allow the kind of really objectionable and intrusive in-program advertising which has already driven Australia's other free to air TV programs towards endless reality TV dramas in order to sell more cans of whatever is on special at Woolworths and Coles this week and more of everything at Bunnings—the kind of fusion and merging between content and advertising that is so far advanced on the commercial TV stations. No-one except the IPA says it out loud, but it is pretty clear what the next steps are going to be: rolling SBS, its back office structures and its advertising rules into the ABC and then flogging both off to the highest bidder. I dare any one of you to come out and just let us know that that is where this is heading. It is pretty obvious that that is what some of you want; it is just that you do not have the courage to front up and say so. The staggering thing is that actually—

Senator O'Sullivan interjecting—

We finally hit a bit of a nerve. It is all right; you will get your opportunity, Senator O'Sullivan.