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

When you talk about media reform, regional communities, understandably, have a strong and legitimate interest in local content. What we will be proposing is that six months after a trigger event there will be new and higher local content requirements that will come into place for the aggregated markets, going up from 720 to 900 points over a six-week period. Also, if there is a trigger event in major population areas in a non-aggregated market, we will introduce, for the first time, local content requirements. Following a trigger event they, in those areas, will go from zero to 360 points per six-week period. So, there will be higher thresholds and a higher baseline of local content for aggregated areas and, for the first time, there will be a baseline of local content for major population centres in non-aggregated areas, which is good news for consumers.