Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this afternoon to comment on the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 and cognate bill. Firstly, as members of the House and representatives of our constituency, we talk about the needs of our electorate. I want to outline some of the ways that people in my electorate see media ownership and also talk about the media outlets that are in my electorate of Maranoa. My electorate covers something like 50 per cent of the land mass of Queensland. It is an electorate that stretches from the outback of Queensland to the inner Darling Downs. There is nowhere within my electorate where there are any more than two voices in any one of those markets—in other words, if there is a newspaper in a town, the only other option for media service is the local radio. I want to talk about those issues in my contribution.

It is important that we acknowledge that in some parts of Australia the need for media ownership change in capital cities and the large provincial areas will differ from that in rural electorates like mine. There is not one centre in my electorate where we meet the minimum number of voices, and that is just a feature of the market that has been there for generations.

The only media owners with outlets in my electorate are in either newspapers or radio. Television comes via satellite in the west of my electorate through Seven Central or Imparja, which are sourced out of Alice Springs, so it is an entirely different market. Quite often people complain to me that the fact that their television is coming from Alice Springs, which covers the central part of Australia, means they certainly know what is going on in Darwin, they know what is going on in Ceduna, halfway across the Nullarbor Plain, but they have very little news content about things that are happening in western Queensland in my electorate of Maranoa. That is just a feature of the geography and the obvious difficulty in servicing very small markets. Those television services, Seven Central and Imparja, are certainly valuable and do provide some diversity in programs, although not so much in the area of news that is relevant to these communities.

I want to talk about the fact that no one size fits all. It is particularly pertinent to my electorate. I have concerns for the small radio stations of 4VL in Charleville and 4ZR in the town of Roma in relation to the minimum content for live and local and 12½ minutes of local news each day. I have spoken extensively to the journalists and owners at these two stations and they are already basically complying with that sort of provision in their own markets. They do so because they know that if they have local news and are broadcasting live and local content—sometimes it may be from down the street, or it may be from the local show, or it may be from the local football match on a Sunday—local businesses will be prepared to advertise in that market. They know that if they are not broadcasting live and local content they will not get the support of the business community for advertising. So it really is a market that works, and these owners know best how to meet that market as it exists in their communities. Radio 4VL in Charleville, a town of about 3,000 people, broadcasts to a wide area but to a very, very small market indeed. When it comes to the commercial side of that market, the owners tell me—and I understand completely—that trying to raise advertising revenue in a town like Charleville as opposed to Brisbane is like chalk and cheese; there is no comparison. The live and local and local content that they report out there is often all about the nature of roads. Whether it is in dry times or in flood times, local rainfall is always of interest to anyone in a rural community. They broadcast daily where the Royal Flying Doctor Service might be flying for the day and the clinics that will be held. That is local content and it is of local interest, and that is what is important in those markets.

I have spoken to the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts about the bill and I obviously have had concerns about the implications of this bill for those small media markets where we do not even meet the minimum number of voices in those communities. They work well today, and I share the concerns of the proprietors of those two small radio stations which are vital to the community and which have become institutions in those communities. I can reflect back many years to when the local radio station of 4ZR used to broadcast live from the local debutante ball on a Saturday evening. That is the way they have held their market and you will never find that sort of live and local broadcast from a provincial city or from a capital city. So it really is horses for courses and it is a reflection of what the community needs and what the community is interested in.

Having spoken with the minister’s office, there will be a review of the live and local content—and I know that it is an amendment that we as a party and as a coalition have sought and which has been agreed to—and ACMA will do that review. I support that and it is one of the conditions that I wanted to ensure was in the bill before it had my support. I want to see ACMA come out into those rural communities—into those Charlevilles, Longreaches, Romas and the back of Bourke—to take some of their evidence as they do this inquiry. It is no good their going to the large provincial cities, the capital cities, to do that review. They must go to these communities to gain an understanding of the market and listen to the local people so that when they complete the review and bring forward their recommendations they will know whether some modifications to the elements of this bill relating to the 4½ hours of local content need to be put in place—which the minister can do by way of a disallowable instrument in the Senate.

In supporting this bill I recognise that the changes that are going to be made are, on balance, good—it is a good bill. I do have concerns as to the implications for live and local radio in these small rural markets. I certainly accept that the minister is committed to ensuring that the review, with ACMA taking evidence and having to complete the review by 30 June next year, will be able to recognise where there might be difficulties or where these local radio stations might find it impossible to comply without breaking the bank. ACMA will talk to the proprietors, talk to the journalists and talk to the local people so that they get an understanding of the difficulties that the 4½ hours of live and local content might place on the economic viability of these radio stations in my electorate.

I am looking forward to the inquiry and I certainly will be making sure that I am around in those towns when ACMA comes to town, because I know it is a very live issue for the communities out there. It means a great deal to a local community to have a local radio station that is prepared to give that vital community information—local news that is relevant to us in our local communities. Local radio has been an institution in many of these communities, and I want to ensure when the bill is passed that the review takes place. I will certainly make sure that the views of my community are known to ACMA.

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