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

I will be very brief, given the time. I would like, first of all, to assure Senator Joyce that the government acknowledges his concerns about the need to ensure the right balance in the media ownership package. Indeed, we share those concerns. It is important that we find the balance in providing the scope for media companies to respond to emerging pressures but at the same time respond to concerns about competition, diversity and local content.

The government opposes this amendment because it would provide a significant duplication of the provisions already in the Trade Practices Act but out of context with the rest of the Trade Practices Act. The government has always seen the media ownership provisions as being complementary to the normal competition provisions in the TPA. To conduct a successful merger in any market, a set of companies would need to pass the five-four, the two out of three test and the normal competition rules that provide that a merger must not result in a substantial lessening of competition. There will also, of course, be significant protections of diversity and competition in media markets.

We have been assured that all the necessary powers with regard to the competition test are already contained in the Trade Practices Act. These are a matter for the ACCC, the expert in dealing with competition issues. It is not appropriate, in our view, to take a small part of the Trade Practices Act and insert it into the Broadcasting Services Act, because it will surely lead to a range of unintended consequences. Neither is this amendment necessary in order to achieve Senator Joyce’s desired outcomes, in my view.

The proposed amendment also includes a divestiture provision for abuses of market power. Again, this is not needed. The media ownership rules already provide for strong divestiture powers for ACMA where an unacceptable media diversity situation exists. The government is also amending the bills to provide an injunctive power for ACMA to prevent mergers from occurring, if they were to result in an unacceptable media diversity situation. For those reasons, we do not think the amendment is necessary.