Cory Bernardi (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services) Share this | Hansard source

‘Often!’ Senator Webber says, and I agree with that. They can be exposed to certain things before their bedtime. If children are going to bed later, but the content which is reserved for adults only is being broadcast at an earlier timeslot, there is a potential for unintended consequences.

This report offers a number of opportunities for voluntary compliance by the free-to-air broadcasting industry. It offers a number of recommendations for the Australian Communications and Media Authority and also some recommendations for government. I hope that they embrace all of these recommendations and consider them in their completeness. I say that because there is a voluntary code of practice. It is a co-regulation. The TV networks get together, they deal with ACMA and they decide what the boundaries and the community expectations should be. Things do evolve in our community, and community standards move up and down according to the whims and vagaries of what is popular, but there are some things we need to ensure there is a complete standard for. We have provided, I think, a comprehensive set of guidelines, which the TV networks and ACMA can work towards over the next three years. The advent of new technology and the increased use of digital technology, particularly in digital television, provide one potential benefit for families. Families should be able to program out what they do not want to be broadcast on their screens. They have the potential to say, ‘We don’t want any M-rated show available to our children before nine o’clock at night because we know our children are not going to be in bed.’ To screen it out is an empowering move. They can find out exactly what they are going to see on a show and they can be provided with a strong explanation of exactly how it is going to transpire. Technology is going to play an increasing role in helping parents to do this.

But technology will not help parents when material that is clearly suitable only for a higher classification, whether it be MA or M, is shown under an inappropriate classification. In circumstances where that happens a complaint goes to the network concerned. The network can take up to 30 business days to respond. It can then go to ACMA, and the process may be prolonged. Senator McEwen referred to the fact that many people now are choosing to communicate electronically either by email or via the internet in another form. People also use a telephone. It is much easier to pick up the telephone and make a complaint than it is to write a letter—and the dying art of letter writing might perhaps be the subject of another Senate inquiry.