Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

It's my pleasure to speak on the Appropriation Bill (No. 1) 2021-22 in relation to the communications, urban infrastructure, cities and the arts parts of the portfolio. In this budget we've announced $15.2 billion in new and additional funding as part of our rolling 10-year $110 billion infrastructure investment. There is $12.8 billion forecast for the 2021-22 financial year in infrastructure grant expenditure, including these significant urban projects: $2.6 billion for the North-South Corridor's Darlington to Anzac Highway in South Australia; $380 million for the Pakenham roads upgrade in Victoria; $237.5 million for METRONET's Hamilton Street and Wharf Street grade separations; $178 million for the Gold Coast rail line capacity improvement from Kuraby to Beenleigh; $87.5 million for the M5 Motorway's Moorebank Avenue-Hume Highway intersection upgrade in New South Wales; and $44 million for the Rokeby Road-South Arm Road upgrades in Tasmania.

There's a great deal going on in urban infrastructure. It is similar in communications. In telecommunications we've committed $16.4 million under the Peri-Urban Mobile Program for better mobile connectivity in bushfire-prone areas on the fringes of our big cities. The peri-urban fringe is where the bush often directly interfaces with suburbs, creating bushfire risks for those who live and work there. The Peri-Urban Mobile Program, or PUMP, will complement our government's highly successful Mobile Black Spot Program by addressing mobile reception in areas along the peri-urban fringe that may have poor or no coverage.

In the digital economy area—and we've made significant announcements as part of our Digital Economy Strategy—we're providing $18.8 million over four years for a digital games tax offset. The global video games development market is worth around $250 billion, which is considerably bigger than the global movie sector. This tax offset will help Australian digital games developers to take a greater share of this global pie. It will drive investment and growth in the sector and help attract and build the creative digital skills needed in the economy. We already have significant skills in the film sector—and in special effects and many adjacencies—in businesses like Rising Sun Pictures, Animal Logic and so on. There's a considerable depth of skills in the sector in Australia already, many of which are very much adjacent to the skills required to be successful in the digital games sector. We already have a number of digital games businesses and we expect more will be attracted to Australia under this initiative.

In the area of community broadcasting we've committed $8.8 million in this year's budget. Australia's 450 community radio broadcasters will benefit from this measure, securing the sector as a valuable source of local news and platforms for local stories. We've also committed $15 million over two years to the AAP Newswire service in support of public interest journalism in regional Australia under the Public Interest News Gathering program. That's in addition to the $55 million already provided by the government to regional broadcasters under the Public Interest News Gathering program.

Our media bargaining code is a world-leading development responding to the way that digital platforms, like Facebook, Google and others, have driven fundamental changes in the way media content is produced, distributed and consumed. In this year's budget, we're committing $4.2 million to support the implementation of our news media bargaining code. That will enable the Australian Communications and Media Authority to fulfil its functions under the code of making sure news media businesses are fairly remunerated for the content they generate.

We're supporting the development and distribution of quality children's content, providing $11.9 million over four years to boost such content through the Australian Children's Television Foundation, on top of $20 million over two years from 2021-22 which we announced in last year's budget that is directed towards the development, production and distribution of high-quality Australian children's content.

When it comes to the arts, I, sadly, don't have time to do justice to the enormous amount of funding that we're committing to the arts sector. There is $85.4 million in this year's budget to support the preservation of Australia's cultural heritage for the benefit of all Australians. That will support the delivery of public services and programs to access our national collections, including institutions such as the National Gallery of Australia. I hope I'll be asked more questions about the arts in the course of today.

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