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

Once again the shadow minister has shown her extraordinary and unlimited capacity to miss the main issue. This is a shadow minister who had the chance to step up and to be part of a significant set of reforms designed to ensure that this vital sector, the media sector, remained competitive, remained able to provide employment, remained able to provide a diversity of voices in metropolitan and in regional Australia, and remained able to compete against massive global companies. The government has been working through an extraordinary, comprehensive range of responses to the needs identified unanimously by the industry. I welcome the minister as a visitor to the chamber today and I congratulate the minister for the extraordinary achievements he has delivered in putting together a package of reforms to the media sector called for unanimously across this vital industry and delivered in the face of the indifference, the insouciance, the complete lack of action by this incompetent shadow minister and this incompetent Labor opposition—a party which supposedly cares about jobs and champions employment. They have stood there doing nothing when employers across the industry, the businesses across the industry, have unanimously said, 'This is a set of changes we unanimously support and call for.' But, no, the shadow minister, in her wisdom, decides that she is not interested in any of that.

We had the ludicrous spectacle just now of the shadow minister proudly announcing that they're not going to oppose this amendment. I tell you something: they opposed it in the Senate, along with their consistent pattern of disgraceful obstructionism on this vital package at every stage on the way, at every stage of this vitally needed reform process, when the opposition and the shadow minister have had a chance to come forward and play a constructive part in this important set of reforms, which are designed to give this vital Australian industry the opportunity to compete on a level playing field against lightly regulated global players using a comprehensive new technology; the opportunity to continue to operate and to provide a diversity of voices in metropolitan Australia and in regional Australia; the opportunity to continue to be an employer of journalists and of so many other people working in the media sector.

What has the shadow minister done? What has the opposition done? They have completely failed to engage. They have been missing in action. It is one of the most depressing and disappointing spectacles to see a Labor opposition sitting there with their arms folded completely refusing to engage or to be constructive participants in this vitally needed package of reforms.

We congratulate the crossbenchers, who have engaged constructively with the minister as he has worked with them tirelessly and patiently over many months and engaged with them on a whole range of constructive and sensible suggestions. Of course there has been some back and forth. There has been some toing and froing, but there has been constructive positive engagement on the part of the crossbenchers: a willingness to engage; a recognition that this vital Australian industry was facing an hour of need and it fell upon the parliament of this nation to step forward and respond. What did we see from the shadow minister? Nothing—a complete failure to engage. It was a remarkably disappointing lack of capacity to meet the call of the hour. But, thankfully, the minister and the crossbenchers have worked together to deliver this vitally important package. It is extraordinary that we have seen Labor's consistent obstructionism and negativism. They have put forward no policy of their own—not one policy suggestion. What was their big idea? To have a review. The house is burning down, and they're calling for a review. No action, no way forward—a complete failure to step up and meet the needs of the moment. (Time expired)

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