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

I rise to speak very briefly on the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television) Bill 2010 and to thank the clerks for keeping us on track this morning. The bill is largely positive. It seeks to ensure that some quarter of a million households in some of Australia’s more remote areas that currently cannot receive digital television terrestrially will receive substantially the same content via satellite.

However, as mentioned in our additional comments in the committee report on the bill, the Greens were quite concerned that open narrowcasters, such as the publicly funded National Indigenous Television, and other community broadcasters may find themselves unable to get access to the new satellite platform despite the fact that it is being funded by the public purse to the tune of $40 million per year. The government have assured us that they have done everything they can to address this issue, including an amendment that ensures that open narrowcasters and community broadcasters will be able to be received on the same reception equipment as the commercial and national broadcasters rather than being condemned to obscurity on disused equipment. However, the government have advised us that there is a legal impediment to giving open narrowcasters and community broadcasters the kind of legislated guarantee that they are looking for that they will not be excluded from the new platform by the joint-venture company that will be running it—as I remind the chamber—at taxpayers’ expense. Nevertheless, the government have given us some assurances that go some way towards addressing our concern for these very important and very independent players in the Australian media landscape.

To put it on the formal record, once other senators have spoken, I ask the minister to confirm for us the following four things: firstly, that there is a legal impediment to providing a legislated guarantee that all open narrowcasters and community broadcasters will be able to access the new platform on fair and non-discriminatory commercial terms and, secondly, that the government’s amendment will mean that open narrowcasters and community broadcasters will be able to be received by the same reception equipment as the commercial and national broadcasters, including by the smartcard and subscriber management system, by dealing solely with the satellite owner, Optus. This is quite important. They will not need to deal with VAST at all, although that is up to them if they so choose. I ask the minister to confirm, thirdly, that the funding agreements prevent VAST from discriminating against access seekers or blocking their access and, fourthly, that, if ACMA does not voluntarily take action, the minister intends to use his powers under the government’s amendment and under the existing part 9B of the Broadcasting Services Act to ensure that ACMA does in fact ensure that the domestic reception equipment cannot exclude narrowcasters and community broadcasters, nor can the electronic program guide subscriber management system or smartcard.

In closing, I thank the minister for bringing this legislation forward—I think it is important and timely—and I thank his staff for the constructive way in which they engaged with the Australian Greens in negotiating this bill through the Senate.

Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment Participation, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television) Bill 2010 is yet another case study of what an incompetent government the Rudd-Gillard Labor government have been over the last three years. They promise the world and deliver next to nothing. They do not think things through. They have to organise things at the last minute. There is mismanagement, failure and incompetence wherever you look. This legislation, which of course follows a grandiose promise made by Senator Conroy in January this year that the government would fund a new satellite service to bring digital television to all Australians who cannot adequately receive terrestrial digital television services, was introduced by the government only in March. And here we are, with less than one week to go before the digital switch-over in Mildura, on the last day in parliament, and the government have to fix up the stuff-ups in their original legislation, which was introduced less than three months ago.

Now we understand that perhaps members, senators and ministers of the Rudd-Gillard Labor government have been somewhat distracted. But even this week the government has been all over the place. On late Tuesday afternoon we were asked if we could deal with this the next morning. When we turned up in the Senate this urgent, important legislation that desperately needed to be passed had been prioritised way down at No.9 on the legislative agenda that day, which meant that there was absolutely no chance that we were ever going to deal with this legislation.

The government has now put forward nearly 40 pages of amendments to a piece of legislation they introduced only in the middle of March. We will support most of those amendments. We have had discussions with the government and it has conceded that some of the amendments are not as time critical as might have been initially claimed and those amendments have been removed.

I will pick up on one area of amendments: the captioning and content requirements on digital multichannels. Under the Broadcast Services Act broadcasters are currently required to apply the full captioning and content requirements to all of the digital multichannels after switchover has occurred in their licensed area. However, because regional broadcasters switch over earlier than metropolitan broadcasters, the obligation will be imposed on regional broadcasters before those metropolitan broadcasters, which will have major consequences for regional broadcasters as they source their programs from metropolitan markets.

Why didn’t anybody think of that before they introduced the original legislation? If this is a problem which pops up at the last minute—with one day to go and less than a week to go before the switchover in Mildura—how many other problems will be discovered on 1 July when Senator Conroy is going to be in Mildura pressing the button, as he has been telling us so frequently here in this chamber?

This is non-controversial legislation and we have been facilitating along every step of the way to get this legislation passed very quickly. It passed very quickly though the House of Representatives. It took the government a very long time to bring it to the Senate for us to deal with it. Clearly, Senator Conroy was struggling in his negotiations with his own colleagues to get appropriate priority for this particular bill, which is why we are dealing with this bill so late in the piece.

I want to draw the attention of the Senate to the fact that the amendments that were originally circulated—which related to the restack of digital channels to achieve the so-called digital dividend—have been withdrawn by the government, so we are led to believe, as will amendments 58 and 59 relating to an exemption for broadcasters from converting certain terrestrial sites to digital.

We are not making a judgment or a comment on the merits or otherwise of those amendments, but our view is that, given the rushed process that we are forced to go through on this occasion, those amendments warrant some further scrutiny and exposure to proper process—something that this bad and incompetent Rudd-Gillard Labor government does not know much about.

In concluding my contribution to this bill, there are examples of failure, incompetence and mismanagement right across the Rudd-Gillard Labor government. This is just one small example of how a lack of proper process and thinking things through leads to you dealing with things at the last minute and trying to fix things up at five minutes to midnight. We are helping to facilitate this process here today because we do not want the good people of Mildura to be caught up in the middle of the incompetence and the mess generated by Senator Conroy on this occasion.

My message to the people across Australia is this: if you want a return to good government then vote for the coalition at the next election. Only the coalition will deliver good government after the next election. If you want the continuation of the bad government that you have had over the last three years, you might want to consider supporting a Gillard Labor government at the next election. Of course, I hope the people of Australia have the good sense to vote for good government at the next election.

Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I give my support to the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television) Bill 2010 but I would like to put the government on notice about some concerns I have regarding its implementation. Television has become more than a form of entertainment. I note that the government has allocated some $400 for eligible households to subsidise the installation of equipment needed to receive a digital signal in black spots that cannot receive terrestrial digital reception.

I have concerns that this may not be enough to cover costs in regional and remote areas, including in my home state of South Australia—although I acknowledge that the government has included increased subsidies for pensioners and other low-income groups. However, I encourage the government to monitor the subsidy as closely as possible. There is some uncertainty about which areas will need satellite equipment and I call on the government to make sure the subsidy is appropriately scrutinised.

I am also concerned that some people may not realise that they are living in a black spot and need satellite equipment to receive the digital signal until it is too late because digital and analog signals are not being broadcast simultaneously in black spot areas. There is also the issue of households that may not receive all the available channels despite having satellite reception. While I support the bill, I call on the government to act quickly if and when problems arise, and I seek their undertakings on this.

Television has become an important tool of communication in modern Australian society, and families and individuals should not be excluded from easy access to this tool of communication simply because of where they live. I believe the switchover to digital is a good thing and will open up a whole range of broadcasting opportunities. I acknowledge that there are some concerns about how the government has decided to deal with this problem; however, at this stage I believe it is important to begin implementing the new system and ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place. I believe digital broadcasting is the future but as we move into the future we must make sure that we do not leave some people in the past.

Ursula Stephens (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Social Inclusion and the Voluntary Sector) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank senators for their contributions to this important piece of legislation, the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television) Bill 2010. I place on the record the issues raised by Senator Ludlam. I note those concerns and his understanding of the issue relating to the amendment he sought is correct. I am pleased to offer the government’s assurance that we will continue to monitor provisions for access to the platform by community and narrow-cast broadcasters, and we specifically confirm the four points he raised in his contribution.

This bill introduces a legislative framework for the implementation of the new satellite service to bring digital television to all Australians who cannot adequately receive terrestrial digital television services. The government are committed to improving the choice and quality of digital television services for viewers in regional and remote Australia as we move towards digital switchover. For the first time, the bill and its amendments will provide broadcasters with the opportunity to deliver, over time, the full suite of free-to-air digital television services to every viewer in Australia, wherever they live. I commend the bill to the Senate.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.