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

There has been a lot of discussion—and you mentioned it earlier—about the first-mover advantage under the rules proposed by the bill, and the amendment provides that ACMA is to deal with applications for registration in the order in which they are received. How would ACMA deal with applications to register media groups? There are a number of different forms of communication, as you are well aware. So, for example, if an application was lodged at nine o’clock on the first morning by email, another application was lodged at nine o’clock on the first morning by fax, and another application was literally shoved under the door so that when the office opened at nine o’clock it would also have been received by hand or mail at nine o’clock in the morning, how is ACMA going to determine which is the first, if they all literally arrive at the same time, at nine o’clock?