George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, in writing, on 25 November 2010.

(1) Is the Minister aware that entire rural communities like Hideaway and Dingo Beach in the Whitsundays and Guthalungra (just north-west of Bowen) are going to be left without easy access to digital television when the switchover happens in 2011.

(2) What action is the Minister taking to remedy this inequity, specifically, would the Government consider funding the upgrade (to digital) of local blackspot transmitters in these areas (currently managed by local councils) so that residents can receive digital television at no extra cost to residents in city areas.

(3) If no action will be taken to remedy this inequity, how does the Minister justify the fact that residents in these regional communities will have to pay extra for both set-top boxes and satellite transmitters in order to receive digital television, when everyone else will receive it for just the price of a set-top box.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

(1) No communities will be left without easy access to digital television when digital switchover happens in regional Queensland in late 2011. Residents in areas without access to a broadcaster operated transmitter, such as Dingo Beach, Hideaway Bay and Guthalungra, will be able to receive the full range of 16 digital television services and a local news service by way of the new government-funded direct to home Viewer Access Satellite Television (VAST) service.

(2) The government is not generally funding the upgrade of self help towers. The government is providing funding for the delivery of digital television to people throughout Australia without access to broadcaster-operated transmitters through the VAST service.

There is no local black spot transmitter designed to serve the area in which Guthalungra lies however viewers here will be able to receive digital television via VAST.

Hideaway Bay and Dingo Beach both rely for their analog television on a terrestrial retransmission of the remote broadcasters' Aurora satellite service. This means they currently only receive four television channels: ABC Queensland, SBS Queensland and the remote area commercial channels of Southern Cross Seven and Imparja Nine, with none of the local regional news services broadcast by the commercial broadcasters in the Queensland Central Coast and Whitsundays licence area. Under VAST, they will have access to their local news on WIN, SCM and 7 and receive the full range of 16 digital channels. This is the equivalent level of content as Australia's metropolitan centres and most regional areas.

In addition to the significant improvement in their television content, VAST will also alleviate the financial burden on local communities such as Hideaway Bay and Dingo Beach in running and maintaining a local terrestrial self-help transmitter.

Broadcasters are converting some self help facilities to digital. The choice of facilities to be converted is a matter for broadcasters. Communities will retain the option of converting their self-help facilities to digital themselves because they are not being converted by the broadcasters, rather than accessing the VAST service, but must make their own arrangements to assess and implement this option.

(3) Residents in communities that currently receive their television services through self help facilities that are not being converted to digital by broadcasters, such as Dingo Beach and Hideaway Bay, will be eligible to receive assistance to convert to the VAST service under the government's Satellite Subsidy Scheme.

Under the Satellite Subsidy Scheme, eligible households will pay a predetermined co-payment—which is expected to be between $200 and $350—directly to the installer. The co-payment will be fixed as part of the contract between the Government and the service providers, and households will be clearly advised of this co-payment in advance of the installations taking place. Contracts have not yet been entered into for installations in regional Queensland, so final co-payment amounts have not yet been determined.

After this initial outlay, Dingo Beach and Hideaway Bay residents will face few if any further costs to receive the VAST service, and the Whitsunday Shire Council, which operates the Dingo Beach retransmission facility, will no longer have to bear the capital and ongoing costs associated with the retransmission of all commercial and national channels.

Guthalungra is an area which has always had poor terrestrial television coverage because broadcasters have not established a local transmitter to serve the area. Some people in the area may already be receiving their television services through the existing Aurora direct to home satellite service. These people may convert to VAST now for the cost of the VAST set top box. Other viewers in the area will have to purchase a satellite dish and a VAST set top box to receive the VAST service. This is no different from the situation for viewers in metropolitan areas who have to go to the VAST service because they are unable to receive a terrestrial signal.