Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move opposition amendments (1) and (2) as circulated in my name together.

The purpose of these amendments is, as I foreshadowed in my speech on the second reading debate, to delete the new section 31AA in the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act, which has the intent of and the effect of making the ABC the only eligible party or entity with which the Commonwealth can contract to deliver international broadcasting services.

We entirely respect the viewpoint that the ABC is an appropriate body to deliver the Australia Network. It is not an unorthodox view to conclude that it is the most appropriate entity to deliver an international broadcasting service. But it is surely remarkable that, having held a tender only 18 or so months ago for the delivery of the Australia Network, where it invited other parties to tender—including Sky, of course, which notoriously won the tender twice but then did not get the job because it did not suit the Prime Minister—and having acknowledged the appropriateness of having a tender, the government is now not simply giving the job of delivering the Australia Network to the ABC but seeking to remove the possibility forever, or at least until such time as the parliament would change this law it is hoping to enact in the next few days, of a government being able to make this important job of acting as Australia's international broadcaster contestable.

As I said earlier today, you have the very real proposition that a future Managing Director of the ABC, and a future minister, may be in a discussion about this where the minister says to the Managing Director of the ABC, 'Look, I think you're asking for far too much money for this; we don't think this is a reasonable price you are offering'—and then has no ability to put the matter to tender, no ability to make it contestable. This flies in the face of every conceivable element of good practice because, where you can introduce contestability, you should. If nothing else, it would keep the ABC on its toes and would ensure that it would always have, in the back of its mind, the thought that, if it started to pad out the contract, or sought too much money, or was not efficient in delivering the services, the matter could go out to tender and another entity, a private sector broadcaster, could compete with it.

In summary, we make no criticisms of the ABC as a public broadcaster that has done a good job and is delivering Australia's public diplomacy vehicle, its international broadcasting services—the Australia Network. We do not suggest it is an inappropriate broadcaster to deliver that service in the future. But the idea of removing any possibility of making this contestable seems utterly unreasonable, impractical, undesirable and thoroughly bad policy. I suppose we should not be surprised: it is consistent with all the bad policy and poor management we have seen from the government.

It indicates, if I may say, the chaotic dysfunctionality of the government—the fact that only 18 months ago, as I said, the government actually held a tender, so it clearly thought it was appropriate to make this matter contestable. And then when the result of the tender was not what the Prime Minister sought, the tender was scuttled and the ABC was given the contract. Future governments, not dysfunctional like this one—businesslike governments, reasonable governments, competent governments, like the one we hope to form following the election—will want to preserve that possibly of contestability. It may not always take advantage of it, it may not necessarily hold a tender, but you would want to have the ability to do so. This bill removes that possibility, and so our amendment, appropriately, is designed to delete section 31AA from the bill and leave the Commonwealth with that ability to have a tender and that discipline of contestability to ensure that the ABC, in making whatever proposal it makes to be the international broadcaster, does so on keen and competitive terms. I commend the amendments to the House.

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