Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise in support of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Prominence and Anti-Siphoning) Bill 2023 proposed by the honourable member for Greenway. In a fast-changing media, news and entertainment landscape, this amendment clearly demonstrates the commitment of the Albanese government to modern media reform. The reform delivers on our election commitment and guarantees Australians access to local TV and free sports coverage in the streaming era.

Unlike the member for Nicholls who had two channels he could choose from, I grew up in country Queensland, in St George, and I had one channel. I was actually in grade 4 when we got television. When I turned it on, I had that Hobson's choice—it was either the ABC or the national broadcaster. Thankfully, the ABC was pretty good entertainment and pretty informative.

In 2024, the days of turning on the TV and choosing between the ABC, Channel 7, Channel 9, Channel 10 and SBS are long gone. Now, Australians are reaching for the remote control with a profusion of streaming services to choose from. Consequently, the Albanese Labor government has recognised the importance of bringing Australia's regulatory framework for media services into the 21st century. Nearly 70 per cent of us have one streaming service and the average Australian subscribes to two. The question, 'What are you watching on Netflix?' has become as common as water cooler conversations in the nineties about what happened on A Country Practice the night before.

The proposed amendments will protect the cultural significance of modern Australian stories, like A Country Practice. The Albanese government is committed to supporting access to local Australian TV services. This will bolster a strong local media industry and enable all Australians to engage in shared experiences and shared economic and cultural lives. This is crucial in any country, but especially in the most multicultural country on earth, where more than half of us were either born overseas or have parents who were born overseas. This is a significant change from Australia at Federation, where nearly 95 per cent of Australians were born in this country, and if they had any connection with a country overseas it was most likely Great Britain.

The first part of this bill introduces a prominence framework for internet-connected television devices. In simple terms, this means ensuring that local free-to-air TV services are easy for viewers to find when they switch their TV on. This ensures that local TV services can continue to play a prominent role in Australia's public and cultural life, preserving our digital water cooler, if you like—or, at the risk of murdering a metaphor, a shared country practice.

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