James Bidgood (Dawson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The main purpose of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 is to introduce discretion for the Australian Communications and Media Authority to accept late licence renewal applications from community broadcasters. Under section 90(1) of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 the Australian Communications and Media Authority has a discretion to renew a community broadcasting licence. Section 90(1A) provides that a renewal application must be ‘no earlier than one year before the licence is due to expire’ and no later than either 26 weeks before the expiry date or ‘a time notified in writing’ by the Australian Communications and Media Authority—whichever is earlier. The Australian Communications and Media Authority has been advised by the Australian Government Solicitor that there is a moderate to high risk that a court would find invalid a licence renewed following a late application, even one lodged only a short period out of time. The later an application is lodged, the higher the risk of a court finding invalidity.

The Communications Legislation Amendment (Miscellaneous Measures) Bill 2008 amends the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to give the Australian Communications and Media Authority the discretion to consider late applications for the renewal of community broadcasting licences up to the expiry date of the licence. The amendments recognise that many community broadcasters have limited administrative resources. However, it is not expected that the acceptance of late applications will be standard practice; instead, it is expected that the Australian Communications and Media Authority’s discretion to accept late applications would only be exercised in exceptional circumstances.

I personally have been involved in community broadcasting since 1994; I spent 10 years on Mackay 4CRM community radio, which is wholly run by volunteers. Obviously, it is a hard task to manage and administer a volunteer staff and a service that offers a live-to-air—not prerecorded—facility from six o’clock in the morning until 12 midnight. I commend the work of all the volunteers, particularly one of the founders of 4CRM Mackay, John Picker, who was previously a presenter on local Mackay ABC Radio before retiring and setting this up as a project. I really do commend his work. He has established something that has stood the test of time.

Unfortunately, in the seat of Dawson we do not have any community TV—none at all. We do not have the facilities or the guidance to get that up and running. We would love to see community TV in the seat of Dawson.

Without any further ado, I commend the work of the volunteers in all broadcasting sectors, whether it be radio or TV, and I commend this bill to the House.

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