Sophie Mirabella (Indi, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Innovation, Industry and Science) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about an important issue to the community of Corryong in the Upper Murray region of my electorate. Corryong is a town of some 1,300 people. It is by no means one of the smallest communities in my electorate, but it is perhaps the only one without access to SBS television. I have had contact with many locals from the Corryong community who are perplexed about why they do not have access to this government-funded service. It goes without saying that in 2013 you would ordinarily expect a service such as this to be available to all communities regardless of their size. Yet I am told that SBS does not have sufficient funding to guarantee service to towns with a population of fewer than 3,000 people.

The point is interesting in itself, because there are many towns in my electorate with a population of fewer than 3,000, all of which have access to SBS television. For example, the towns of Bright, Yea, Tallangatta, Bonegilla, Alexandra and Yackandandah, just to name a few—and of course there are many more—all have populations of fewer than 3,000 as at the 2011 census. So it is becoming an increasing source of frustration to my constituents in Corryong, and understandably so.

I first raised this matter in July last year and it was met with enthusiasm of course by locals. I have since written to the communications minister, Stephen Conroy, as well as the Managing Director of SBS, Mr Michael Ebeid. I recently received a response from Mr Ebeid and I am encouraged by his strong interest in expanding SBS services to more rural locations across the country.

I think this is an important mission for SBS. This is a taxpayer service and it should be readily available to all Australians. It is simply inequitable to deny taxpayers in a small town a service for which they pay, especially when the technology is available at relatively small cost to facilitate this.

In a response I have received from the minister's office, it has been suggested that the Corryong community should simply make an application for a self-help tower. I do not believe that it is fair or reasonable to expect the Corryong community to take responsibility for the ongoing maintenance of a broadcasting facility when that facility is provided to the rest of Australia without that same responsibility, and particularly when we consider the following fact. The thing that frustrates the Corryong community most is that the basic infrastructure is already in place. The broadcasting tower was recently upgraded to provide for digital signals so the provision of an additional transmitter for SBS would surely not be that difficult or costly. So locals in Corryong quite rightly raise the issue: if the government can provide access to ABC television, surely they can provide the same access to SBS television.

I want to take this opportunity to thank the Managing Director of SBS for his ongoing dialogue with me on this very important matter. I look forward to meeting with Mr Ebeid to discuss this matter further in the near future and I can only hope that Minister Conroy is as enthusiastic to expand SBS coverage as Mr Ebeid is. This is important. It is important not only because my constituents in Corryong have been asking for this important service; it is also important to show our smaller communities across the country that they are not forgotten. So often, it is a case of out of sight, out of mind. The further away that a community or a town is from the capital city in a relevant state, the more isolated they are and out of sight from the authorities. I feel very passionate about my electorate and I feel particularly passionate about standing up for some of the smaller communities.

It is not just about, as some politicians would have it, going to where the big votes are; it is about representing all of the electorate and doing everything you can to fight on their behalf. I tell my constituents in Corryong that I will continue to fight for them, including continuing to fight for them to get SBS coverage, and I look forward to the day when that can happen.