Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

My question is to Senator Coonan, the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer to the government’s plans to weaken the cross-media ownership rules. Can the minister confirm that, under the government’s diversity or voices test, the number of owners of major commercial media could fall from 12 to six in Sydney and from 11 to six in Melbourne? How can the minister continue to claim that the government wants to protect media diversity when its plans allow the number of owners to halve in our major cities? How can such a massive concentration of media ownership possibly be in the public interest? What guarantees can the minister give that the government’s plans will not inevitably see newsrooms merged, reporters sacked and local content reduced?