Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Urban Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the amendments be agreed to.

If the House agrees to these amendments, the House is agreeing to finalise and deliver the most comprehensive and significant package of reforms to media laws in over 30 years. Global forces of technological and economic change are sweeping through the media industry. There are enormous global competitors such as Google, Facebook, YouTube and many others operating over the internet and almost entirely free of being subject to domestic content and other regulation in Australia. And, yet, they are competing with long-established Australian media businesses which are subject to extensive domestic regulatory requirements. The Australian media sector has been crying out for changes to an out-of-date legislative and regulatory framework, changes which are critical to protect jobs in Australian businesses, to give Australian businesses the chance to compete on a level playing field and to ensure the continued provision of viable media services and choice in regional Australia.

That is why the Prime Minister and the Minister for Communications have laboured mightily to bring forward and deliver a comprehensive media reform package. The Turnbull government has achieved the unprecedented outcome in which every major participant in the media industry—all of the metropolitan free-to-air television providers, the regional free-to-air television proprietors, the newspaper proprietors, the operators of radio networks and the operators of subscription television—supported the package which the government brought forth containing changes to the outdated regulatory framework for the media sector which are designed to give the Australian media sector the opportunity to compete on a level playing field against global competitors and to give the sector the chance to remain viable, remain competitive, remain a significant employer and remain a provider of a diversity of voices in metropolitan Australia and in regional Australia. The Prime Minister and the communications minister have worked constructively with the crossbenchers and the minor parties in the Senate to achieve and deliver a responsible and constructive package.

This was a chance for the opposition to come forward and play a constructive role in nation-shaping economic reforms, much like the coalition did in the 1980s and 1990s when, as a responsible opposition, we came forward to work with the government of the day on significant and necessary economic reforms. This was a chance for the Shorten Labor opposition to come forward. This was a chance for the Labor opposition to come forward and responsibly play its part in significant reforms designed to meet the needs which unanimously the industry were calling to be addressed. What did we see from Labor when it faced this moment of truth? What did we see from the shadow minister, the member for Greenway? What we saw, I am sorry to inform the House, was a complete failure to engage constructively in this debate. The industry are virtually screaming at the shadow minister, saying: 'Please help us. Please assist us to provide continued employment. Please assist us to remain viable. Please assist us to continue to provide a diversity of voices in regional Australia and metropolitan Australia.' What is the indolent and indifferent response from the shadow minister? She sits there whistling, pretending nothing is happening. She does nothing. Labor does nothing. Labor has opposed every aspect of this package at every stage. You could not see a more dismal or more hopeless example of an opposition completely failing to engage with an important national requirement and completely failing to step up and meet the national interests because of its concern for grubby political self-interest.

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