Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

I'd like to support the motion moved by the member for Goldstein for action on media diversity. One of the basic tenets of the free market economy is that the provision of goods and services should not be concentrated in the hands of too few players. Concentration of ownership in any market inevitably leads to stifled innovation, erosion of working conditions, poorer outcomes for the customer and decline of an industry. That is the concern with media ownership in Australia. What populations consume as news determines what we believe to be true. It informs our views of the world and its issues, influences how we treat each other and guides how we vote. If we value democratic principles of accountability, transparency and free elections, then we have to guard those principles.

The peak of media pluralism in Australia was in the 1920s, when 21 independent media owners owned 26 capital-city daily newspapers. Now we have two media corporations controlling two daily newspapers in Sydney and Melbourne. Every other capital city in this country has only one daily paper. The media corporations have extended from the legacy media of print, television and radio into digital news and on-demand services. Australia's print media market is the most concentrated of any global democracy.

Over many decades, the hard work of reporters in this building has changed Australia's democracy for the better. Whether it's a decision made by a local council or the allocation of billions of dollars in the federal budget, the public's ability to trust in our decisions, knowing that they are fair and proper, depends on the media's capacity to investigate and hold leaders to account.

Australia's media landscape is dominated by three companies: Seven West Media, Nine Entertainment and News Corp. The concentration of the media into three main corporations has centralised information, it has eviscerated regional and specialty media outlets and it has cut thousands of jobs. Media empires can use their reach to make or break policy proposals and change the outcomes of elections. In the last few years, those three companies have been responsible, in this country, for climate denialism, for fostering racial hostility and for undermining our response to the COVID pandemic. They have never been held to account for disseminating misinformation.

The Press Council is almost entirely funded by News Corp, 9Media and Seven West. Last year it rejected 93 per cent of complaints made by the public about inaccuracies and bias in our media. To be clear: it didn't rule on those complaints in the publisher's favour; it declined to even consider those complaints. What recourse does the public have when it reads a story in the paper that contains false information or vilifies people based on their racial background? With three companies offering most jobs in the industry, reporters cannot report critically on their own patch. Last year the Senate heard News Corp employees confirm enforcement of a top-down editorial line from the company's executives. Last month 9Media journalists, in their enterprise bargaining efforts, demanded freedom from editorial interference. We have to critically review the Press Council and ACMA to prevent further erosion of the public's trust in our media.

Two recent former prime ministers, Malcolm Turnbull and Kevin Rudd, have come forward, after politics, to warn of the political influence exerted by these media empires. Our governments have shown repeatedly that they do not have the courage to take on Australia's media empires. The crossbench is doing that today because our electorates have told us that they want to see politics done differently, with truth, integrity and transparency. The concentration of media into the hands of fewer and fewer people should concern all Australians. In democracies, the media should serve the public's right to know. The media should not determine what the public is able to know. A free and fearless media is essential for a transparent, accountable democracy. That's why an inquiry with the resources and powers of a royal commission is needed to guide the way to reform of our media landscape, with restoration of diversity, balance and independence.

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