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

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

I seek leave to table an explanatory memorandum relating to the bill.

Leave granted.

I table the explanatory memorandum and seek leave to have the second reading speech incorporated in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

Last week, WIN Television announced it would be cutting its services to South Australia's South East and Riverland. It's likely this will mean the loss of ten editorial jobs, but it will also have a major impact on the local content broadcasted to these communities.

The importance of local content – broadcasted material that is about local issues, produced by people who live in the area –is important for everyone, not just regional or remote communities. We all want to feel connected with what we see on television: we want to hear our stories, told in our voices.

This is even more vital for regional communities. People living in these areas deserve to have content that is relevant to them, in a way that complements the capital city and national news broadcasts they have access to.

In fact, the importance of local content is so widely acknowledged it has been enshrined in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.

Since the late 1980s, regional aggregated commercial television broadcasting licences have covered areas in New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland, with the addition of Tasmania in 2008. These licences require broadcasters to meet specific criteria for local content set out by ACMA.

There was supposed to be further studies done on whether regional areas of South Australia, and indeed Western Australia and the Northern Territory, should be added to this licensing regime. But those studies never took place.

I believe this is a major oversight, and an anomaly that is addressed in this bill. Broadcasting has changed significantly since these areas were included in the Act, with the advent of digital television, online broadcasting and media on demand.

But what we have seen, particularly in regional South Australia, is a decline in local content. Because there is no legal requirement for them to do so, broadcasters are simply taking the easy way out. Any cuts to a network's production budgets will obviously target the region where there is no legislative protection, rather than being distributed more fairly.

There may be more ways to get what you want... but less of what you want being aired.

The aim of this bill is to go some way towards rectifying that oversight. By bringing regional South Australia in line with the other areas listed under the Act, we can ensure that local content is protected.

Local content gives local communities their voice, and we must make sure it cannot be silenced.

I seek leave to continue my remarks.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.