Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the last fortnight, we saw a lot of controversy surrounding SBS with its program Struggle Street, and we saw a lot of garbage trucks go across to the SBS headquarters to protest against it. But, without getting into the merits of the program, one question remains which needs to be settled. The question is: why does a publicly funded broadcaster with—I quote directly from SBS's website—'a special mandate to reflect the multicultural nature of Australian society' have its offices and headquarters located on Sydney's leafy North Shore at Artarmon? I think Artarmon is a wonderful suburb, but surely SBS would benefit, including from a cost-benefit analysis point of view, by relocating to Western Sydney.

I know there are calls for SBS to be privatised, but rather than that why couldn't we move its headquarters out to Liverpool in Western Sydney, in the electorate of Hughes? We have one of the most multicultural areas in all Australia. We have people born in 150 different places, speaking over 140 different languages. Among our main streets of Liverpool, we have a Bollywood street. It would be an excellent move for SBS to be relocated to Western Sydney, to Liverpool. I hope the communications minister will take that on notice.