Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am pleased to rise to speak on the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2008. Before entering parliament, in one of my past lives I was closely associated with radio, both commercial and community, in my role as the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Independent Record Labels. We had real concern about the capacity of commercial and community radio to act as a communication channel for local Australian artists. I also served on national committees in various areas of community radio and worked with community radio stations all round Australia on the promotion of Australian music through that medium.

When discussion first began some 10 years ago about the introduction of digital radio and how that would affect the operation of radio in Australia, we had mixed views, I have to say. On the one hand we recognised that digital radio provides many additional benefits to listeners—in particular, better quality of sound, better reception and a more efficient use of spectrum—but we were concerned that, in the switch-on of digital to run alongside analog, the capacity of the new technology be used to increase diversity and the interests of smaller broadcasters be protected through that changeover period.

This bill deals with the introduction of digital radio to operate, as it will, alongside analog radio, and essentially it eases many of the concerns that I had in those early years. Mainly, at this stage, it extends the deadlines for the introduction and adds provisions for different sectors of broadcasting for different periods and for different reasons. It extends the deadline for broadcasters in the mainland state capital cities by six months, to 1 July 2009, it treats Hobart as a special case and it introduces special provisions for community radio. The current switch-on deadline for the six capital cities is 1 January 2009 and, to broadcasters who do not meet that deadline, sanctions will apply. Those sanctions can be quite harsh and they include the cancellation of their rights to broadcast in digital. I am very pleased to see that ‘use it or lose it’ provision reinforced in this bill. Spectrum is limited—it is extremely limited—and, while we must provide flexibility for businesses to make the adjustments that they need, we must not allow broadcasters to hold valuable spectrum unused for unreasonable periods of time. But for a range of reasons it has become apparent that many broadcasters will not be able to meet that deadline.

This bill amends the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the Radiocommunications Act 1992 to extend the deadline for the commencement of digital radio services by six months, to 1 July 2009. It gives additional flexibility to commercial broadcasters to resolve any further infrastructure issues that relate to the rollout of transmission equipment as they prepare for the launch of the new digital services. It should be noted, though, that the ABC and the commercial radio sector have announced that the national switch-on for digital radio will take place on 1 May 2009—before the 1 July deadline. It is important to note that the extension of the deadline will not disadvantage broadcasters that choose to switch on early; it simply provides greater flexibility for those that require the additional time.

That extension to 1 July 2009 applies to the capital cities on the mainland. Hobart is treated differently and given additional time again over the six months. That is not an unusual response to Hobart’s circumstances. In the switch-on for radio and the switch-over for digital television, broadcasters in smaller regional markets are given additional time to make the necessary changes for conversion to digital. Hobart is classified as a regional licence area in a number of other contexts, including the rollout of digital television and for advertising market purposes. That is because its population is roughly the same or smaller than other markets classified as regional, including, for example, Geelong, Wollongong and Newcastle.

The costs for broadcasters in Hobart, should they be forced to commence digital radio services at the same time as the mainland state capitals, would be much higher than their competitors in the capital cities on the mainland. Hobart’s commercial radio broadcasters stated that, because of the higher costs of operating in small markets, they would not be in a position to commence digital radio services at the same time as larger mainland capital cities. This bill effectively removes Hobart from the capital city category and allows it to commence digital radio services at the same time as other similarly sized markets.

Finally, there are special provisions for community radio—and it is quite right that there are. Community radio in Australia is a particularly vibrant sector. We have one of the better community radio sectors in the world, well known for its diversity, local content and grassroots participation in the media sector. In a country like Australia, where diversity in media content is a priority, community radio plays an extremely important role in providing a voice for many people who would otherwise not have one at all. But it often struggles. These community based organisations survive extremely well in Australia, but technological changes such as this one will make it difficult for organisations that are constantly fundraising to support their ongoing operations let alone expensive upgrades of equipment, the skilling of volunteers and access to transmitters under the new formats.

The digital radio framework for the introduction of digital radio services in Australia was included in legislation introduced into the parliament in 2007. The framework required that joint venture companies could be formed by digital radio broadcasters for the purposes of holding a relevant digital radio multiplex transmitter licence and managing the transmission of digital radio services in Australia. In line with that legislation, the community broadcasters formed representative companies in each of the state capital cities with dual functions of coordinating the sharing of transmission capacity reserved for community broadcasters between individual community radio licences and representing the community sector should it choose to take up the option of joining the relevant joint venture company.

In the tight fiscal environment leading up to the May budget, the government deferred funding for the community broadcasters to participate in digital radio to the 2009-10 financial year. So community broadcasters were unable to purchase shares in joint venture companies. Under this amendment, community radio broadcasters will have an opportunity, should they choose, to purchase shares in the joint venture company in line with the intention of the original legislation passed in 2007. Community broadcasters, though, will not be forced to join the joint venture company. The legislated reservation of transmission capacity remains unchanged by this investment, so broadcasters of all kinds are able to broadcast digital radio services regardless of whether they are part of the joint venture company.

Digital radio has the potential to bring significant benefits to radio listeners through a greater number of channels, but it is important through the change of process that we ensure that we see an increase in diversity and not just an increase in the number of channels. The potential for both broadcasters and listeners to benefit from the introduction of digital is enormous. The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2008 amends the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the Radiocommunications Act 1992 to smooth the transition. I commend the bill to the House.

Paul Neville (Hinkler, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2008 is supported by the coalition. I do, however, have a few reservations and criticisms of the bill. The amendment contains support for the introduction of digital radio transmission in Australia, a topic of great interest to me and one I have followed for a long time. I would like to talk a little bit about the introduction of digital radio services and what that might mean to regional areas—a topic I have been fortunate to investigate in a previous parliament. In September 2001 I handed down the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Communications, Transport and the Arts report called Local voices: inquiry into regional radio. The report contained our findings from an inquiry into regional radio throughout Australia. That covered both analog and digital transmission. Chapter 5 detailed the opportunities and challenges which lay ahead with the introduction of digital radio to Australia. Even though the inquiry focused on radio services in regional areas broadly, it was well recognised that the introduction of digital broadcasting was logical and, indeed, the next step for Australia’s radio sector.

Some of the opportunities, particularly for regional areas, included an increased number of services and improved diversity of programming as well as digitally generated text services within the radio set. I do not know if it is generally recognised that a digital radio has a little screen on it that digital services can be transmitted to. You might be listening to ABC Classic FM or 4MBS Classic FM in the community network and the piece of music that is being played and the name of the conductor will come up on the screen. It can have lots of other uses, such as for weather reports, stock reports and so on. It is a very interesting medium. Digital radio also has a higher quality sound than AM or FM transmission. It has the added benefit of being able to compress the signal and send down the wire—so to speak—and then split it out again in your radio set. So you can fit a lot more into the spectrum than you can in either AM or FM.

Broadcasters will be able to expand the content they offer to listeners and cater to niche audiences throughout the nation. For example, our national broadcaster submitted at the time of that inquiry that flexibility of the digital spectrum meant it would be able to channel-split—that is, effectively broadcast a number of different programs from the one frequency. It could air different livestock or weather reports for specific communities within its broadcast footprint. As a fierce advocate of diversity of content—and this is a potential feature of digital radio—I find this aspect quite appealing, particularly in a media climate where there seems to be a contraction of new, fresh and local program content. You all in this parliament know me. I have been quite a critic of the way regional radio has been dumbed down over the last decade. Digital radio gives us an opportunity to revitalise regional radio. I believe people living in regional and rural areas are hungry for live and local content, and it is something that has been reiterated by me from time to time—both in my parliamentary and coalition policy committees.

In my home town of Bundaberg, we are fortunate to have a number of community radio broadcasters, which have done a great job in sourcing and broadcasting local and niche material. Doing so has made these broadcasters an integral part of the community. They reflect local views and allow the wider community to have a conversation with itself on a daily basis. I am not just referring to talkback shows and interviews with local leaders and whatever. I mean that it has the capacity to transmit the sort of music that people want. The sort of music that people on the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast might want—and this is recognised by the ABC, who have a separate transmission subunit for those two areas and down into northern New South Wales—might be quite different from the type of music people in perhaps Townsville, Tamworth or Roma might want. Again, digital radio—whether it is in the community or in the commercial field—gives a chance for greater diversity and selection.

In the Local voices report that I referred to we also recognised that a number of issues need to be resolved before digital radio is introduced to Australia. We said it was crucial to have regional areas well placed to receive these services. It seems to me—and I am not being unduly critical of ACMA or the department—that a lot of the time we stumble around trying to get the capital city programs going, whether it was colour television or digital television, and then say, ‘We’ll try to catch that up three or four years down the track.’ I suppose there is a good side to that as well in that it allows country stations and particularly community radio stations, which have a lot more challenges, to get ready for the expense involved in introducing it.

This bill amends the start-up date to 1 July 2009—in other words, to the middle of next year. Apparently, this extension has been brought about because of difficulties the broadcasters have been having with access and with certain digital transmission equipment. If this is the case then I support the measure strongly because it is more important to get the switch-over right than to expect broadcasters to meet a schedule that is clearly impossible.

I also note that the bill makes provision for Hobart to be classified as a regional radio market for the purpose of the introduction of digital transmission. I support that as well. Tasmania has a population of only about half a million. It is a big expense. The functionality in Tasmania will be similar to a region—perhaps it will be a bit bigger than an individual region. Nevertheless, the Hobart commercial radio community have asked for this amendment. I think it is reasonable. They do not anticipate that they could meet the deadline, so I think it is fair enough to cut a bit of slack in their case.

The final measure contained in the bill relates to the community radio sector and gives it the wherewithal to share in the ownership of digital transmission in the form of the infrastructure that is available via joint venture companies. The earlier explanation we used for digital radio was that it had pipes and that you could send five or six signals down the one pipe. If you are sending that into a country area, who is going to manage it? Who is going to split it up and say who does this and who does that? The previous government and the current government believed that this should be done by joint venture companies—in other words, the various commercial players should come together and make provision for the community broadcasters to participate.

This is where I am going to be critical. The current government made no provision for that in this year’s budget, so the commercial guys know that it has to be introduced soon, particularly in capital cities, and that they have to go ahead and get the joint venture companies together. The vast majority of community stations, not having the financial capacity to join them, have to stay out of the mix for the time being. They just cannot afford to be in it. So you have the commercial guys being forced to go ahead and the bill making several provisions for the community broadcasters to come into the system down the track. That is annoying for the commercial broadcasters who have gone to all this trouble to set up their mechanisms. They will have to all of a sudden restructure their companies.

The bill is quite specific. It says that they cannot overcharge for their shares, they have to ensure that the price does not exceed the amount worked out under a prescribed formula; they have to, within 30 days of receiving a request from a community station, invite them to join; and they have to keep the offer open for 120 days. It says in another part of the bill that the community broadcasters have to get a minimum of two-ninths of the shares—and I am not quite sure how that works where you have a series of community stations.

There are a lot of complications to be worked through and if the money had been upfront, allowing the community broadcasters to be able to participate fully from day one, we would have had a much smoother and much more certain system. There would have been certainty out there about what the face of digital radio would have looked like, first in the capital cities and then in regional areas. It would have been quite clear. No matter how hard ACMA and the department work on this, until the government open up the purse strings it is going to be a bit of a dog’s breakfast. The first 12 months will be a period of uncertainty rather than certainty.

Section 5.38 of the Local voices report talked about the estimated cost of establishing digital radio transmission in Australia. We took evidence from the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia and they put the conversion at that time—bear in mind that this is some years back—at between $75,000 and $150,000 per station depending on location, size of station and service area. I suppose those figures would have gone up in the normal course of inflation and perhaps some of the equipment has become a bit cheaper over time as well, so I do not know where the balance is now, but you can see that the average community station has no chance. There might be one or two around that can do it but the majority have no chance of coming up with that sort of amount. They are clearly going to have to be subsidised. Clearly, a lot of the infrastructure costs associated with this would not be affordable for most community stations around the country. In fact, a direct quote from the committee’s 2001 report is:

Given the financial circumstances of many regional community stations, it is difficult to imagine them being able to embrace digital radio unless assistance is provided by the Government.

Governments were warned, the coalition was warned and the Labor Party was warned that far back. It is no good them saying, ‘We didn’t realise the difficulty.’ Of course they realised the difficulties. The government’s failure to provide funding to broadcasters, as I said before, has left the community radio sector with nowhere to go in terms of switching on to digital—no funds to purchase their hardware or infrastructure, as I also said, and no ability to access infrastructure. They are in a pretty parlous state.

The fact that the government did not provide the necessary funding assistance makes the option of acquiring a share of joint venture ownership also difficult and it is very important that they have that particular connection. As I said, there would be levels of resentment because they cannot participate fully from the beginning and that will be an inconvenience to the commercial broadcasters. The committee’s report also stated:

The costs associated with introducing digital radio for broadcasters are significant although it may be possible to achieve some economies through the sharing of infrastructure.

Again, until you give the stations an opportunity to know what they are going to get, how can they even talk about joint ventures either as community broadcasters or more widely with their commercial colleagues?

We did make provision for this in our last budget as the coalition government. We provided $2.7 million over three years for ACMA to undertake planning and licensing activities so our national and community broadcasters could make a start on digital. The government has made, I think, about $11 million available next year but, as I pointed out, that hiatus is going to be a bit of a dog’s breakfast until we give the community operators a chance to know what sort of support will be available from the government.

I am a very strong supporter of radio services. I think the fourth estate in its various manifestations is an essential plank of a vibrant democracy. I rail against things like excessive networking and the combining of news services, which rob regional areas of local voices—in fact, that is why we called the report Local voices. Digital radio gives us another opportunity to enliven, enhance and create a new platform for people not just in the cities but in country areas to improve, as I said, with agricultural or Country Hour type broadcasting on the radio, a number of services that a farmer might have in his tractor or down on the workbench in his shed, places where he might not otherwise be able to have, say, a television set. This is a very good medium, and it is very important that it gets out to people in a vibrant and usable form.

There has been a hiatus during the last 12 months with the community stations, who play an important part in some areas. Recently I was in Dubbo on an inquiry into Regional Partnerships, and in the course of that we had discussions with the community station 2WEB. It really has picked up a big part of the broadcast responsibility in that area and, I might say, has attracted the ire of some of the commercial broadcasters.  I was enormously impressed with that station in particular. There are others too. Stations 2MBS, 3MBS and 4MBS are great services being offered by community stations and they will be able to offer an even better service under digital broadcasting, especially if they are given the opportunity. Perhaps these stations should be given an even higher level of subsidy. They are community stations that operate on a similar basis to the ABC’s FM network. They provide a community classical music network. Some would say they are not quite as esoteric as the ABC. There is a more popular classics twist to what they do, and I find a lot of people listen to that. I know people leave radios on overnight and want soothing music to listen to on 2MBS, 3MBS and 4MBS. I appeal to the government to look, when they are doing this subsidisation of community stations—and I trust they will—to those stations that provide specialist service in quality broadcasting to see that they get some assistance as well.

Finally, I support the bill—but with those reservations and with that request for early subsidy to the community stations.

Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with real pleasure that I rise to speak in support of the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2008. Before I get into the detail of the bill, I will make the comment—and I take on board the comments from the member for Hinkler—that community radio particularly is a very important part of our community. Certainly the development of community radio stations over the last decade and more shows their worth to the community. In my speech on this bill I will specifically look at and concentrate on some of those issues surrounding the community radio stations in my electorate. But before I talk about those things I will give some background to the bill.

The bill states:

The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2008 (the Bill) will amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and the Radiocommunications Act 1992 to:

• extend the deadline for commercial broadcasters to commence digital radio services in the mainland state capital cities by six months to 1 July 2009,
• remove the requirement for digital radio services to commence in Hobart by the extended deadline of 1 July 2009.
• Broadcasters in Hobart will have the opportunity to commence digital radio services at the same time as other markets of comparable size, such as Geelong, Newcastle and Wollongong, and retain an option for community radio stations to take up shares in the joint venture companies managing the transmission of digital radio services.

FINANCIAL IMPACT STATEMENT

The measures contained in this Bill are not expected to have any direct, or indirect, financial impact on Commonwealth revenue.

I would like to discuss the final measure in the bill that directly relates to community radio. The second reading speech of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister states:

The final measure in this bill amends the Radiocommunications Act 1992 and gives the community broadcasting sector an opportunity to participate in the ownership of the transmission infrastructure that will be used to broadcast their digital radio services.

The government is supportive of the community broadcasters’ participation in digital radio and considers that community broadcasters play a vital role in promoting diversity, local content and grassroots participation in the media sector.

Community radio is an integral part of communities such as Forde. Like many community radio stations, the stations in Forde are in need of funds. Community radio stations find it difficult to keep up with their commercial counterparts, particularly with the advancements in technology. The government decided to take a cautious approach to the introduction of public radio by reprofiling the community sector’s funding to commence in the 2009-10 financial year. As a consequence, the community sector was unable to apply for a share in the joint venture companies, formed in 2008, that own digital radio transmission infrastructure. This amendment will restore to the community broadcasting sector an opportunity to participate in the joint venture companies, in line with the original intent of the legislation introduced in May 2007.

The benefits of digital radio to the sector and to listeners are enormous. My electorate of Forde is fortunate to be served by two community radio stations—BeauFM, in Beaudesert, and BFM, in Beenleigh. In a lot of ways, they are more dominant than the commercial radio stations that cover that area generally. In fact, the listening public in the area of Forde find themselves in a bit of a black hole when it comes to commercial radio transmission, and the community radio services certainly provide a wonderful community service.

I talk frequently about the remoteness of some areas in my electorate—and if I mention Duck Creek Road again, I am sure a few people will raise their eyebrows. But it is interesting that even areas like Duck Creek Road get the transmissions from community radio. This is an area which, for a whole range of reasons, does not even get regular newspaper and mail services. So the wonderful thing about community radio in my electorate is that it is pervasive and it is out there. It reaches communities like Duck Creek Road, Mount Tamborine and Canungra. There have always been difficulties with community radio acquiring analog transmissions. This bill will offer organisations like BeauFM the opportunity to expand their audience.

I am a former media proprietor. In fact, I owned a couple of newspapers in that region. I had a very good relationship with community radio. In fact, I became a regular financial sponsor. I take on board the member for Hinkler’s comments and concerns that there is not enough funding from government. Many organisations would like government to provide more funding. That is interesting, coming from an opposition member, because the opposition think a commercial approach to most things is important. But I adhere to that view in this case because the private sector can provide certain support where it can, as I did when I was a business proprietor. The wonderful thing about community radio is that it lends itself to being very much a part of the community and being supported in many ways.

My interest in community radio goes back a long time. I have been in different roles over the years as a media person and a businessperson. I have been there and I have made comment on a whole range of things. Community radio gives the community a very direct level of news service. While the media and new services are important in my organisation, it is also very important to support a community radio station and to be able to get out a local message.

BFM in Beenleigh has taken on a training responsibility. A little later in my speech today, I will mention the opportunities we have in community radio to train young people and give them an opportunity to gain more skills in the media area. BFM, the Beenleigh station, has lots of young members and has had overwhelming success in looking at ways to allow others to receive benefits from the programs that they offer. It is a fully operational FM radio station that is set up at the Beenleigh Police Citizens Youth Club and broadcasts to the local Beenleigh community. The station is a tool for the youth development programs that run at the Beenleigh PCYC, and all funding for the station has to be generated from BFM businesses. That is one of the models I have just spoken about where businesses are involved and generate a level of revenue.

The station broadcasts 24 hours a day and offers greatest hits from all eras. Of course, one of the most difficult things for any radio station is to provide a program that people will listen to. While I am a great fan of Slim Dusty, many community radio stations tend to overplay certain genres of music. Community radio, in some cases, gets it right more often than other radio stations do. I know there is always a tussle within these organisations over what sorts of programs they run.

Regular listeners to BFM take great pride in monitoring the development of their announcers. As I said, they have a training program, which is a great way, not only for youth but for other people with the desire, to be involved in broadcasting. I am sure a number of us in this chamber have had the opportunity to be interviewed on air or have made regular visits to a radio station. Visiting a community radio station is always an enjoyable experience, probably because it is the nature of community broadcasting to be less concerned about getting leverage from the issues, particularly political issues, in our communities. As with BeauFM, many of the businesses in Beenleigh have BFM playing as background music. So it is a wonderful thing that we can continue to support community radio through the amendments we are making with this bill.

I would like to make mention of a few people who have been important in the development of those community radio stations, particularly BeauFM, which has been around since 1996. It started as a very small operation in an old caravan. Their known location was fairly mobile, because they used to move the caravan around, but they now have a very well established station with a couple of studios. As I said, it is all done on a voluntary basis through the support of the community and businesses, who see it as an essential service.

I will make two points about the notion that it is an essential service. Firstly, we should look at the responsibility at local government level to consider how they might better support local radio. In the region I come from, while the local council at times provides funds for advertising or sponsorship of public announcements, I think it would be legitimate for local authorities to commit more funding to their local community radio station by making them the public announcer for events or whatever other information they want to put out. Secondly, one of the reasons the community radio network was established was to provide an emergency response. People probably do not realise that the capacity to respond in an emergency is one of the things that community radio provides to an area. While it is not called on very often, in my area we know that they are geared up to transmit in times of an emergency. It is a very important reason why community radio should exist.

I would like to thank a number of people who have been involved over the years. Jim Dennis, who was a presenter for many years, helped to develop the radio station from its beginnings. Jim had always been passionate about good quality radio and, can I say, he was one of the people who turned Beau FM into a station of some note for news and local commentary. Councillor Dave Cockburn in the last 10 years has been heavily involved in getting Beau FM to the point at which it currently sits. While he has his responsibilities as deputy mayor of the Scenic Rim Regional Council, he still gives an enormous amount of his time to supporting broadcasting and a whole range of other things. Doug Drescher has been a long-term member of the station and one of the people who helped get the station established. I have mentioned the importance of training. One of their noted presenters is a fellow called ‘Nugget’, who in the region is well known. The name Nugget might suggest that he plays a lot of Slim Dusty, but he mixes it up. He plays lots of different things and is a very good, much revered announcer.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Country and western!

Brett Raguse (Forde, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Country and western—that is right. Mark O’Brien is also a very talented on-air presenter and he has put a lot of work into the radio station. And Alf Sander, who just turned 90 years of age, is still a very active on-air announcer and provides some wonderful soundtracks for people who like listening late at night. I should also commemorate the late Rex Rodgers as he was very much a part of establishing the radio station and put in a lot of work over the years.

Before I close, I would like to sum up by saying that I support this bill and certainly the aspects that support the development of community radio. I think community radio is a vital part of many communities, particularly those that are outside of capital cities. In regions like my area it is absolutely necessary, even to those people in Duck Creek Road, because it is an important service and one of the only services they tend to get in that region.

When I mentioned training I should have said that there is a great model for training in community radio in the Smithfield high school just north of Cairns. In a former role, when I was heavily involved in media, it was one high school that I visited just to see what they were doing with their community radio licence. There is an amazing amount of training that they put through that high school, training of a very high level.

In closing, I support this bill. The role it plays and support it gives to local communities is very important. With that, I commend this bill to the House.

Gary Gray (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Regional Development and Northern Australia) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak in support of and in conclusion on the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2008. I acknowledge the contributions of the member for Hinkler, the member for Parramatta and the member for Forde. The Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2008 makes amendments to the legislation introduced in 2007 that provides a framework for the introduction of Australia’s first digital radio services next year. Digital radio will launch in 2009. It will operate alongside existing analog services and promises a range of new and innovative features that will enhance the radio services so valued by Australians.

The first two amendments in this bill relate to the commencement date for digital radio in the six state capital cities. Under current legislation, commercial radio broadcasters in these markets are required to commence digital radio services by 1 January 2009. Failure to do so could expose them to sanctions, including the cancellation of their right to broadcast in digital. Due to a range of reasons, including delays to the rollout of transmission equipment, broadcasters are unable to comply with this deadline.

As a result, the commercial radio sector and the ABC recently announced that the national switch-on for digital radio will take place on 1 May 2009. Accordingly, the bill will extend, by six months, the deadline for start-up to 1 July 2009. This will ensure broadcasters are not in breach of current provisions for late commencement and do not have their right to broadcast in digital cancelled.

The bill will also remove Hobart from the list of markets subject to the new deadline. After consultation with Hobart’s commercial broadcasters, who expressed strong concerns about their readiness to launch at the same time as the mainland state capitals, the bill will allow digital radio services to start in Hobart at the same time as other, similarly sized markets, such as Newcastle, Geelong and Wollongong.

The final measure in this bill amends the Radiocommunications Act 1992 and restores to the community broadcasting sector the opportunity to participate in the joint venture companies formed in 2008 that own digital radio transmission infrastructure, in line with the original intent of the legislation introduced in May 2007. The government is supportive of community broadcasters’ participation in digital radio, recognising the vital role the community sector plays in providing diversity, localism and grassroots participation in the Australian media. The benefits of digital radio to both broadcasters and listeners are enormous and the government looks forward to a successful launch of Australia’s first digital radio services on 1 May 2009.

In conclusion, again I would like to thank all members who contributed to this debate and note the strong bipartisan support that exists in this parliament for this bill. I commend the bill to the House.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Ordered that the bill be reported to the House without amendment.