Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer her to the News Media (Self-Regulation) Bill 2013 which states that the Public Interest Media Advocate will judge the extent to which the Press Council's standards will 'deal with privacy, fairness, accuracy and other matters relating to the professional conduct of journalism'. How is this consistent with Senator Conroy's assertion that the public interest advocate is 'simply a registration function' and that 'the government or the advocate are not changing a single standard that the Press Council currently has'?

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To the member for Wentworth's question, in terms of the bill that is before the parliament and the scheme, the Public Interest Media Advocate does not regulate print or online media. That is not its function. In much of the public reporting on this matter and some of the statements that have been made publicly, people might have got the impression that it is the regulator directly. That is not true. It is true that, through the various inquiries that the government has had, including the Finkelstein inquiry, there was a recommendation for a statutory regulator of that nature, and the government specifically rejected that recommendation. We have instead gone down the path incorporated in the bill before the parliament. What that means is that news organisations can come together and create a press council or a number of press councils. There have been two press councils, effectively, in existence in recent times. So, media organisations come together and create a press council. They then work through the standards and mechanisms that the press council is going to engage in, how the press council is going to function and what standards it believes are appropriate standards. The role of the Public Interest Media Advocate is then to receive all of that work from the press council and respond to it as to whether or not, in the assessment of that very independent body—this is a statutory person, not a government person, and I do stress that—

Mr Randall interjecting—

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Canning is warned!

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I rise on a point of order going to relevance. The question related to reconciling the language of the bill, which I have in my hand, with the statement by Senator Conroy, which is clearly at odds with it.

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Wentworth will resume—

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I recognise this was not discussed with the cabinet, but he could at least be a little bit familiar with it.

Ms Anna Burke (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Wentworth is now abusing the point of order and I am not amused. The Prime Minister is being relevant to the question.

Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I was saying before the point of order, the role of the Public Interest Media Advocate is then to satisfy itself that the press council that has come forward has adequate arrangements in place regarding standards of practice which reflect community standards and expectations about news and current affairs, appropriate and responsive complaints handling, arrangements for the body to publish agreed standards, appropriate governance arrangements and suitable funding arrangements. That is, this is about the media having a self-regulation model that attends to media standards. I believe that is appropriate. That is the bill before the parliament. I understand that the member and the opposition are looking for a bit of craven political advantage here from media barons. We will leave them to that kind of approach to politics. We will put the public interest first, and that is what we have done in this legislation.