Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Urquhart, thank you for your question. I think you are asking me, 'What did cabinet deliberate upon this week?' As you would expect, ministers never comment on what may or may not have been discussed in cabinet. But I have been extremely up-front over a long period of time that the government is strongly of the view that media laws—in particular, the 75 per cent reach rule and the two out of three rule—are progressively being rendered redundant, not only by technology but by the choices that consumers exercise as a result of that technology. Let me be very clear: I think those two media laws have had their day. We are going through the orderly internal processes of government, and once those processes are concluded I will be in a position to make an announcement with further detail, including, importantly, what would be done, if there were changes to media law, to ensure that we protect local content in regional areas. That is something that my colleagues on this side highly value and that their communities highly value. It is important, as we look at the area of media reform, to make sure that regional communities continue to enjoy good local content and to see whether there is a capacity to even improve the level of local content in regional areas.