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

My question is to Senator Coonan, Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. I refer the minister to her comments on Lateline last night claiming again that the new media laws will not result in a wave of takeovers. Has the minister seen reports than an unknown investor has gobbled up between five and six per cent of Fairfax? Given the activity by James Packer and Kerry Stokes, does the minister now accept that the media moguls are about to snatch and grab a host of the most influential media assets as soon as her new laws are proclaimed? Isn’t this the outcome that the government’s new laws were designed to achieve? When will the minister stop trying to deny what is clear to every observer in the market? Isn’t it the case that far from being a ‘friend of the consumer’, as she has claimed, the minister is the best friend that the moguls have ever had?