Andrew Broad (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There was a saying that when you bought a new utility vehicle in the electorate of Mallee, the dealer would tune it into the ABC Radio. For the whole time you had that vehicle, you would not touch that dial and when you traded it in it would still be tuned into the ABC. Even though they listen to that left-leaning ABC, they still vote National Party. It just shows that the people who live in the Wimmera Mallee are very wise.

However, in the south-west Mallee, you cannot get Triple J. The farmers in my patch are saying, 'We want to be able to listen to Triple J around Hopetoun. We want to be able to listen to it on our tractors. We want to listen to it in our trucks, on our harvesters and in our kitchens.' They cannot get Triple J. This is an injustice that needs to be fixed. We have written to the ABC, and they have said, 'You can stream it.' That would be good if we had internet access and if we could actually get the mobile internet to stream it. I am here to mount the case that it is inequitable for the people around Hopetoun and the people of south-west Mallee to miss out on Triple J. These are the farmers of the new generation. It is a good program. It is a public broadcaster. The response from the ABC is, 'You can put up your own tower. You can pay for it yourself.' It might come to that point, but I think there is an equity argument that the farmers do not just want to listen to Radio National on the ABC. They want to listen to Triple J, so let's bring it to the south-west Mallee.