Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

And the whip. It is just so, so terrible.

So here we are in a situation where Labor, as you have heard from a number of speakers, has extended a number of opportunities to be able to work with the government on genuine media reform. We have extended the olive branch in that way. What have we got in response? In response, we have a deal which has been stitched up not through broad consultation or genuinely involving stakeholders, and a wide range of them. It is just a deal. It is a cheap, quick fix. It does not do as both the member for Greenway and the member for Whitlam have outlined—that is, we want to see independence, better media standards, improvement in terms of local content, the provision of regional service and the support for that content, and support for jobs. We are saying that we are prepared to work on all of these fronts.

The other thing is, too, when you consider the number of regional members that sit on this side of the House I find it quite surprising to be told by that side of the House that they have a monopoly on being able to speak up for regional communities. We had a broad number of our members talk about this legislation and talk about its importance to their regions. All we have had is obstinacy from that side. We have had nothing but stonewalling. There has been no preparedness whatsoever to genuinely engage. It has been a hallmark of the discussions around media reform in this place. There has been none of that. All there has been is a desire to force this through. This is another example of quantity above quality—they chalk up a win and they claim that they can go out and say, 'We've got this legislation through.' But they have not actually come up with anything that will generate a longer term benefit. There is no genuine media reform into the longer term.

The other thing that has surprised me through the course of the debate is how many people on that side have been saying, 'How can we provide for diversity in this market given how small the marker is?' Diversity has been a hallmark of this market for years. With a population base that was way lower, it managed to survive. Obviously, there is a very heavy reliance by those opposite on the fact that the internet has transformed things. Yes, it has. But it has also opened up opportunities, too. And those players have been seizing on that, both the traditional and the new and emerging ones.

So the fact of the matter is: we are not interested in just having an exercise of chalking up wins. We want to see a legislative outcome that delivers a real and genuine outcome—and one that will actually, as the member for Greenway and shadow minister rightly points out—that will be sustainable into the future so we are not having to come back here in the autumn sitting to try and correct, change, fix up, amend, or whatever, this rushed-through package. Certainly, I think the government has an opportunity to actually take this into account, make the changes now and get this right the first time.

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