Ian Macdonald (Queensland, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to question the minister on the trigger events. It has been suggested to me that an internal corporate restructure, which does not really impact upon the effective ownership of a radio station, could be seen to be a trigger event. It has been suggested to me that the third paragraph of ‘trigger events’, which talks about controllers, could be a trigger event. I indicate to the minister that I am not going to vote against this amendment, even if the answer is not what I want, but I do think that if an internal corporate restructure does trigger the events that require these happenings to happen it really is something the government should look a bit more closely at.

I understand that time is brief, and I do not want to hold the Senate up unnecessarily, so I will ask a couple of questions at the same time, if I may. Do the requirements for local news and weather happen from now, or only upon the happening of a trigger event, meaning that if the ownership remains permanent—say, for the next 20 years—there will be no mandatory requirement for local news and weather and community announcements? I only raise this, Minister, because as you know I do have some concern at the mandating of these requirements.

I concede that most of the radio stations that I am familiar with are in Queensland. But I did sit through the committee hearings and questioned all of the radio station witnesses that came before us. And they represented the corporate giants, one might call them; they represented regional commercial radio; and they represented some country stations that were not in the regional grouping. Members of the committee will recall we had evidence by telephone from a representative of a family which owns one or two radio stations in country New South Wales.

As I understand it, and my local knowledge of the Queensland market is that, almost all of them, certainly stations in little places like Longreach and Mount Isa—although I do not think that Mount Isa would like to be called little—and stations like 4KZ in Innisfail, which transmits out to Karumba, have local news. I know this because, fortuitously, they occasionally ring me when they want a clever comment or, rather, a serious comment, one that does put the case.

They all do have weather and, as I said in my speech in the second reading debate, I am aware that whenever there is a cyclone around, which is most important up where I come from, the local stations and the ABC will stay on air 24 hours a day as they are needed. They will do that for number of reasons: they are good corporate citizens; they are local. But they also know that that is what their listeners want and, as I have said a number of times, what the listeners want is what the advertisers want and, if the advertisers are unhappy, then they do not pay the money and the radio station goes bust.

I mentioned earlier, Minister, reports in today’s media suggest that some of the larger corporate chains or networks will, if this goes through, simply be unviable and will be losing money. They have particularly nominated, as I mentioned earlier, 4AM in Mareeba and the Roma radio station. I would be very distressed if anything we did in this chamber led to the Atherton Tablelands area and the south-western Queensland area having one fewer voice, one fewer radio station. That has always been my concern. It is a concern I repeat because, even though they may not be perfect at the moment and perhaps do not have as much localism as I might like, at least they are there. If we do things that cause them to permanently lose money, they are going to shut down and we are going to have nothing. So something bad is better than nothing at all. They are the concerns I have.

So, Minister, to draw together the questions I have asked: does an internal corporate rearrangement represent a trigger event? And, if so, is that what the government intended? And is that good policy? And, if it is not, perhaps the minister might look at it some other time. As I say, I am not going to vote against the amendment today, but I do think it needs to be aired. The other thing is: what are the time lines for the introduction of the news and weather?

While I am on my feet I will also ask this of the minister: I raised the issue of community radio, to which the minister gave a very full and comprehensive reply, but not directly on the following issue. I am not asking the minister to commit to doing it, but could I get the minister to say that the government might have a look at the restrictions on community radio, at the appropriate time?