Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

To the member for Wentworth's question, in terms of the bill that is before the parliament and the scheme, the Public Interest Media Advocate does not regulate print or online media. That is not its function. In much of the public reporting on this matter and some of the statements that have been made publicly, people might have got the impression that it is the regulator directly. That is not true. It is true that, through the various inquiries that the government has had, including the Finkelstein inquiry, there was a recommendation for a statutory regulator of that nature, and the government specifically rejected that recommendation. We have instead gone down the path incorporated in the bill before the parliament. What that means is that news organisations can come together and create a press council or a number of press councils. There have been two press councils, effectively, in existence in recent times. So, media organisations come together and create a press council. They then work through the standards and mechanisms that the press council is going to engage in, how the press council is going to function and what standards it believes are appropriate standards. The role of the Public Interest Media Advocate is then to receive all of that work from the press council and respond to it as to whether or not, in the assessment of that very independent body—this is a statutory person, not a government person, and I do stress that—

Mr Randall interjecting—

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