Helen Coonan (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts) Share this | Hansard source

Senator Conroy, I would like to address Senator Bernardi’s question, please. The question related to the overlap between the ACCC and the ACMA. While they clearly have very defined roles, there is no doubt that there is some complementarity in the way in which they will be approaching media mergers. But the role has been very clearly delineated for both the ACCC and the ACMA.

The ACMA will administer the diversity test and the local content arrangements and requirements. The ACCC will look after what is a market for media in terms of mergers. The ACCC will look after the competition side of it; the ACMA will look after the diversity side of it. Their roles are clearly delineated, and whilst there is some complementarity, they do have very important and distinguished approaches that are very important to this package. I take Senator Conroy’s point.