John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As you well know, Madam Deputy Speaker, I have a longstanding interest in the role of the media and its vital importance to our precious democracy. Therefore, today I asked the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport representing the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy to outline the role of the media in reporting the facts on an issue impartially, accurately and with integrity.

My question arose from the Sydney Morning Herald report titled '"We will get him!": journalist's alleged texts to Slipper accuser' and placed online earlier today. It revealed the contents of documents filed with the Federal Court and released to Fairfax today. I cannot comment on the case, as it is before the Federal Court, and I therefore merely question why the Manager of Opposition Business repeatedly interrupted the minister by raising points of order when the minister was only quoting from the Sydney Morning Herald report, which was freely available for the whole world to read. Were the tactics of the Manager of Opposition Business designed to protect the journalist who was the subject of the SMH report? Was the Manager of Opposition Business trying to protect himself?

It is very timely now to speak about ethics in media reporting in a healthy democracy. I believe that we all expect a journalist to report news, not create news. The Minister for Transport and Infrastructure quite properly said that journalists need to recognise 'whether they're reporters or they're participants; whether they're observers or they're activists' and to understand the very important distinction between the two in order to preserve the integrity of the media. The issue of the integrity of the media extends beyond the irresponsible actions of individual journalists. Like me, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy, has the long-held view that the concentration of media ownership in our country is 'becoming too tight' and that the potential for concentration is alarming. I am with him all the way, as is the Chief Government Whip, the member for Hunter.

Senator Conroy has been campaigning in support of a public interest test in media mergers which is based on a Productivity Commission and ACCC report from a number of years ago. They argued that if you just leave it to the market you will not get an outcome that gives you diversity of opinion and diversity of voices. When we were in opposition, Labor raised concerns that media diversity was not adequately protected by current media ownership rules and in particular that section 50 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 was unable to deal effectively with cross-media mergers and mergers between old and new media or to address issues of public interest in media mergers.

In 1999, the report of the Productivity Commission inquiry into broadcasting recommended that the government introduce a media-specific public interest test to the Trade Practices Act 1974 to eventually but not initially replace current media ownership rules. It was recommended that this test be additional to and operate under separate provisions from the general mergers and acquisitions test and be administered by the ACCC in consultation with the media regulator. The Productivity Commission and the ACCC argued that the criteria for the test should include: first, the likely impact of an acquisition on editorial independence, free expression of opinion and fair and accurate presentation of news; second, a share of the voice test whereby the influence of a media group is measured; third, the desirability of promoting plurality of ownership in the broadcasting and newspaper industries; and, fourth, the desirability of promoting diversity in the sources of information available to the public and in the opinions on television, radio and newspapers.

The Howard government watered down the media ownership legislation a number of years ago. Senator Conroy reminded us that it was only 12 months ago that the numbers in the Senate changed to allow the possibility of passing new legislation to try to strengthen the media ownership laws. The Australian public rightly demands a high standard of objective, professional journalism. It is the duty of this parliament to ensure that this demand is fulfilled by setting a framework of diversity and independence in our media. You can be certain, Madam Deputy Speaker, that our government will do so.

House adjourned at 22:30