Michael Ronaldson (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I welcome back, Senator Conroy. It is nice to have him back as a spokesperson again for today at least. I find it quite extraordinary that five months after Senator Coonan first announced these reforms, the day the legislation is to be introduced, the day the committee is meeting, we did not hear one word of policy from the Labor Party apart from some nefarious commentary on regional Australia, which Senator Conroy would have absolutely no idea about because he is, at best, an infrequent visitor. There has not been one discussion about where the Labor Party stands on media reform. They are the dinosaurs of communication reform in this country. The last time the Australian Labor Party talked about media reform was 20 years ago—the internet was the domain of academics, pay TV was in its infancy, there was no framework for digital radio, IP TV had not been thought of, let alone 3G, video ipods or television mobile devices.

This reform package is predominantly directed at one group of people in this great country, and that is the consumers. The Australian Labor Party have a very big decision to make over the next four weeks on this issue. Are they prepared to support—