Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Earlier this year the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications, Information Technology and the Arts bought down a report titled Community television—options for digital broadcasting. It recommended a range of initiatives to smooth the transition for community television from the current analog broadcasting system to digital. There were 12 recommendations in all, but they included, perhaps most importantly, a recommendation for the provision of additional funding to smooth the transition and a series of options for ensuring that they had access to the digital spectrum as soon as possible to allow them to simulcast. In all of the submissions that we received from community television there was a recurring theme, which was that, as members of the general public—members of their audience—transferred from analog to digital in their homes, they lost access to the signal from the community television station. So what was obviously happening and what will continue to happen is that, as people move from analog to digital, community television effectively loses its market. The view was that the situation is now so dire that, unless access to spectrum is granted within a very short time frame, community television will effectively cease to exist.

In the most recent budget, the government allocated $10.1 million to help community radio upgrade and it has previously given funding to the ABC and SBS and the regional commercial TV networks for conversion to digital, but there was still nothing in the budget to assist community television to move from analog to digital. That lack of action moved one of the community television presenters from Channel 31 in Melbourne to remark:

With the Government trying to get more viewers to convert to digital, it almost seems as if they are actively trying to drive viewers away from watching community television … We call upon this Government … to reassure the station and community television sector that they are not being left to die.

What was the rationale for not including support for the transition to digital broadcasting for community television in the budget, and what action does the minister intend to take to facilitate the transition of community television from analog to digital in a timely manner?

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