Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this bill be now read a second time.

The Broadcasting Services Amendment (Community Radio) Bill 2022 will provide greater certainty and clarity for community broadcasting licensing processes. It will support listener access to high quality and diverse community radio services as well as provide regulatory flexibility for the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

Every week, more than five million listeners tune in to more than 450 community owned and operated radio stations around the country. This includes 1.4 million listeners from non-English-speaking backgrounds listening to broadcasts in more than 100 languages.

The community broadcasting sector exists at the heart of local communities by broadcasting local news, telling local stories and providing a platform for local voices and music that is essential to a well-informed and inclusive society.

The first measure in the bill will amend the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and clarify that the renewal process for community radio licences is not a competitive process. While this has always been the policy intent of the act, it has not been explicitly stated. This measure clarifies that, when the ACMA is considering a renewal application, it will only consider the current radio service and not a proposed new radio service.

With this amendment, the government is providing greater security and certainty to existing licensees. This will ensure existing community radio broadcasters can plan for future programming and infrastructure needs with greater certainty. However, this amendment is not intended to affect the ACMA's ability to refuse to renew a licence if it is found the current licensee is not providing a radio service that meets general community needs. As such, Australians will continue to have access to quality radio programming that reflects their interests.

The second measure clarifies the ACMA's powers to allocate new community broadcasting licences and temporary community broadcasting licences with effect from a specified future date. Currently, prospective radio stations do not have advance notice to set up broadcast infrastructure and station programming. This has meant that successful community radio licensees have sometimes taken significant time to begin their broadcasting service following the initial allocation of their licence.

This amendment will allow the ACMA to provide licensees with advance dates for the commencement of services. It will contribute to the streamlining of spectrum planning and give prospective stations the time needed to plan and make necessary preparations to have the best possible circumstances under which to begin broadcasting.

The third measure clarifies the matters the ACMA may consider when allocating a new temporary community broadcasting licence. The intent of the temporary licensing regime remains unchanged, and that is to give aspiring broadcasters access to spectrum in a fair and effective manner. However, the amendment gives the ACMA the flexibility to ascertain if a temporary licensee is not providing a quality service. The government considers this will help ensure the integrity and reputation of the community radio sector is maintained. Consequently, it should minimise the risk of poor-quality services to listeners or services that don't meet the needs of the local community.

The fourth measure will give the ACMA the discretion to limit the number of temporary community broadcasting licensees that can share a particular frequency.

It has always been the policy intent of the act to enable temporary licensees to share frequencies to assist with the sustainability of the community broadcasting sector and effective management of spectrum. However, this amendment is designed to maintain the integrity and reputation of the community broadcasting sector by giving the ACMA the flexibility to decide if a limit on a particular frequency is necessary.

The fifth measure will include deadlines by which late applications to the community broadcasting licensing process can be made. This will assist with timely processing of late applications, giving both the broadcasting applicants and the ACMA clarity about the process while safeguarding against the unintended expiry of licences. In turn, this will prevent any unnecessary disruption of radio services.

The final measure clarifies the community broadcasting licence allocation process. Currently, the ACMA has an implicit power to decide to commence a process to allocate one or more community broadcast licences, after which it must advertise for applications for those licences. The existence of an express power more clearly enables the ACMA to delegate the decision to commence the process to allocate a community broadcast licence. These amendments do not change the current arrangements in regard to the requirement to advertise for applicants, or decisions to allocate a community broadcasting licence to a particular applicant.

The government is committed to supporting the long-term sustainability of the community broadcasting sector. This is evidenced by the additional $4 million per year of ongoing funding the government is providing for the Community Broadcasting Program from 2023-24. This takes annual funding for the program to over $20 million per year.

This bill is a further step to provide certainty for community broadcasters and provide listeners around Australia with continued access to high-quality and locally relevant news, information and content.

I commend the bill to the House.

Debate adjourned.