Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Health) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am sure that I am one of many people in this place who has been hearing from their constituents about the importance of community television and their disappointment at the government's decision to force community TV out of the free-to-air spectrum. As David Green, a Melbourne comedian and community TV presenter, wrote in TheSydney Morning Herald a few days ago:

Community television became the latest target for nation un-building recently when Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced TV signals would be switched off at the end of 2015.

In forcing community TV out of television, it is no answer to say that the internet represents the future for such broadcasting, especially not from the coalition, which, during a former stint in government, bequeathed to Australia the parlous state of broadband infrastructure that followed the privatisation of Telstra and which is now working to dismantle the NBN. As the community TV sector has been saying loudly and clearly, the shift to the internet is already underway, but it is a shift that will take time for community and commercial operators alike. So on what basis should the community sector access to spectrum be pushed off a cliff?

Like many Western Australians I enjoy West TV, and I have been fortunate enough to participate in some of its local programming, including current affairs shows like Undercurrent. The community TV sector is an important part of diversity and local character in Australia's media and an important incubator of ideas and talent. Silencing community TV is yet another sad example of this government's nation unbuilding.