Brian Mitchell (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Member for Mayo. I think that could be the cause of divisions, but anyway!

And, of course, there's the station legend, John Hay. He's got the John Laws sort of velvet voice on the microphone. I'll give a shout-out while I'm here—although it's not in my electorate—to the University of Tasmania's student radio station, Edge FM, which has given many young journalists and student politicians the ability to cut their teeth and learn the ropes before heading out to wonderful careers across Tasmania and the nation. They like to give us professional politicians a hard time, which I think is terrific. We get the hard questions, and we should be prepared to answer them. Edge FM do a terrific job out there at UTas.

What's important for those of you who are not lucky enough to visit Tasmania more often—and it's very sad if you're not—is that all of these community stations are accessible online. I strongly urge all members present to tune into these great stations to listen to the wealth of knowledge and community that I enjoy representing down in Tasmania. These stations are the heart of the communities they broadcast to. They provide a quality service to the community, promote local events and are there for people when it counts, including during times of fire, flood and everything in between. I love jumping on air with the local hosts and DJs, inflicting my own musical choices on them and playing the latest hits and all the classics. I tried to play 'Droving Woman', the Kev Carmody classic, recently. It goes for about 10 minutes. It's a fantastic song, but it is a long one. I also communicate about my work in Lyons and deliver vital information about what is going on in Canberra and across Australia. I know that this is a sentiment shared across the House. The member for Mayo is about to get up, and I'm sure she'll extol the virtues of community stations in her electorate. We're all here to support our community stations.

An immense amount of work has gone into this bill. It's been developed in consultation with government and key industry stakeholders. I thank the Minister for Communications, Michelle Rowland, for her work in putting this bill before the House and ensuring that it's the best it can be for the benefit of community broadcasters and their listeners. I would like to take a moment to thank her staff and those of the department who work immensely hard behind the scenes for us and for the benefit of this great country and the people in it. They often don't get the recognition they deserve for the technical work they do in putting these bills together, but it's really important. It knits these programs together. Community broadcasting wouldn't be in the shape it is in now, or in the future, without people looking after the details in bills like that. It's the staff who do that. They often don't get the recognition they deserve for the work they put in.

I commend the bill to the House, and I urge you all, and anybody listening to this broadcast—maybe after I've finished speaking and after the member for Mayo has finished speaking—to tune in to your local community broadcaster.

See this speech in context