Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to talk about the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Television and Radio Licence Fees) Bill 2016. Labor is supporting the bill for the reasons ably outlined by my colleagues, the members for Greenway and Whitlam. I am pleased to make a contribution.

I would like to focus on regional broadcasting and one aspect of that—the appalling television reception that many of my constituents face. It is an issue that is constantly raised with me when I am out and about in the community. The key issue is that television reception in many parts of my electorate was substandard before the transfer to digital television, and it has become even worse since then. The main complaint is very regular cut-outs when they are watching television; another is that particular channels barely work or do not work at all; another is poor reception when it rains or when it is very hot. This is just not good enough.

I would like to put this in context. In the year 2016, many of my constituents are having major difficulty in watching television in their own homes. This is 2016; this is not 1966. To put this into further context: the southern part of my electorate is barely one hour's drive from the Sydney CBD; the northern border of Shortland is about a two-hour drive from Sydney. And yet many of my constituents—only one hour from Australia's largest and most international city—cannot get television reception. This is completely unacceptable.

Many of my constituents who are facing this problem are elderly and many live on their own. For these people television is a fundamentally important part of their everyday lives. The television is the main source of entertainment and news. It is how they connect with their community and the outside world. It is actually an aspect of democracy that is little remarked upon. If the main source of news that people in my area rely on to make informed decisions about who they vote for in elections is not available, then this is a hindrance to them expressing their democratic rights. Imagine how distressed these people feel and the isolation they feel when the primary source of entertainment and news does not work properly. The fact is that elderly constituents of mine feel isolated, and this makes me incredibly angry as their member of parliament. It is not just my elderly constituents who face this problem; many young families have also contacted me with the same problem. Some in the big capital cities may respond, 'Well, this isn't a problem, because they get plenty of service through smart televisions, iPad apps and paid television.' Well, many of my constituents cannot afford pay television and many of my constituents suffer from appalling internet services and therefore cannot stream from online services. That is why, since being elected to parliament in 2013, I have campaigned very strongly on improved communications in my region, whether it is television reception, mobile phone coverage or the NBN.

Last year, I wrote to the then Minister for Communications, who is now the Prime Minister, and asked him to refer digital television reception problems to the Australian Communications and Media Authority for investigation so this issue could be raised with regional broadcasters. He did not act, yet this was not out of ignorance, because I am sure the Prime Minister knows about television reception issues in the Hunter region and I have photographic evidence that he does. This is a picture of him with the former member for Paterson, Bob Baldwin, just two weeks before he became Prime Minister. He was visiting Mr Baldwin to announce $800,000 to address digital television issues in his electorate. It is interesting that of the five Hunter electorates, all of whom have television reception issues, the only one the Prime Minister could be bothered to turn up to and to help address the issues in was the Liberal electorate held by Bob Baldwin. It was a desperate and ultimately futile attempt to try and keep him in that seat.

We know what needs to be done. The government and the minister are aware of these issues, particularly in regional Australia. They need to work with industry to plan how to best address these ongoing issues. They have committed funding previously and the need to do more, along with the broadcasters, to solve this problem. This bill is giving a licence fee cut to those broadcasters, and I call on all broadcasters, particularly the regional broadcasters, to really invest in the infrastructure so that constituents of mine, in the great seat of Shortland and the surrounding areas, have access to one of the fundamental rights in a modern, economically rich country, and that is television reception.

To conclude, I say to my constituents: I will continue to campaign for greater telecommunications services in my area, whether it is decent internet speeds, mobile phone reception or whether it is free-to-air television reception; I will not rest. We are one to two hours from Australia's largest city, we are the seventh largest city in our own right, we live in a well-developed economically prosperous nation and to be without these services is a disgrace.

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