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

As I was saying before the point of order, the role of the Public Interest Media Advocate is then to satisfy itself that the press council that has come forward has adequate arrangements in place regarding standards of practice which reflect community standards and expectations about news and current affairs, appropriate and responsive complaints handling, arrangements for the body to publish agreed standards, appropriate governance arrangements and suitable funding arrangements. That is, this is about the media having a self-regulation model that attends to media standards. I believe that is appropriate. That is the bill before the parliament. I understand that the member and the opposition are looking for a bit of craven political advantage here from media barons. We will leave them to that kind of approach to politics. We will put the public interest first, and that is what we have done in this legislation.

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