Nick Minchin (SA, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to speak on behalf of the coalition in relation to the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Television Switch-over) Bill 2008. This bill sets in place the mechanisms to complete the transition to digital TV in Australia. The coalition has a very firm commitment to supporting the transition to digital television. In government, it was the coalition that commenced the process to transition Australia to digital. In the year 2000, the coalition provided the legislative framework for the introduction of digital television, with digital transmission commencing in metropolitan licence areas on 1 January 2001, nearly eight years ago, and in non-remote regional areas from 2003. The initial legislation permitted a simulcast period of at least eight years. The current legislated switch-over is designed to coincide with the end of the analog digital simulcast period.

In government, the coalition was always concerned about take-up rates before switch-over and conscious of the need to ensure consumer awareness of the benefits of digital television. In July 2006, we announced that there was insufficient digital take-up to meet the initial switch-over date in metropolitan areas. Subsequently, we established a Digital Action Plan to drive take-up and achieve switch-over with a revised target of 2010 to 2012. In November 2006, my colleague Senator Helen Coonan, as Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, announced the creation of Digital Australia to coordinate the transition to digital TV.

The Labor Party went to the 2007 federal election promising to abolish Digital Australia but, of course, has merely rebranded it as the Digital Switchover Taskforce, retaining similar functions to the previous body and retaining the executive director appointed by our government, Mr Andrew Townend. Given our leadership of the move to digital TV, the coalition naturally support the intent of the digital television switch-over bill. However, in stating our support, it is important to say that we do have some concerns about the end of the simulcast period and want the government to ensure that no current analog free-to-air TV viewer is left without a digital signal.

This bill allows the government to implement the minister’s digital switch-over time line. I deliberately referred to it as the ‘minister’s time line’ because in December last year, upon their election, the minister, Senator Conroy, determined a date for final switch-over in Australia of 31 December 2013. The minister then set about planning how this could be achieved, and it is only recently that we have seen any detail about how he plans to achieve this ambitious timetable.

The bill provides the mechanism for the minister’s timetable to be achieved, commencing with Mildura in the six-month window from 1 January to 30 June 2010. So, while the bill itself does not contain this timetable, the preferred timetable has been released, indicating the government’s preference to end simulcast region by region, and in regional and rural Australia before the metropolitan areas. From the coalition’s point of view, we do understand the rationale for that particular approach of doing it in regional and rural Australia prior to metropolitan areas, but I say to the government that this process is going to have to be managed extremely carefully to ensure that people in rural and regional Australia—in particular—do not feel they are the government’s guinea pigs for this transition to digital TV.

We note from the most recent study by ACMA into digital take-up in Australia that there have been significant improvements in take-up since we, as the former government, launched our Digital Action Plan, but there are still a number of concerns with take-up, and with viewer understanding of the end of the simulcast period, that do need to be addressed. ACMA’s report Digital television in Australian homes 2007 found a 12.2 per cent increase in the number of households—to around 41.8 per cent over the 18 months since the last survey—receiving digital free-to-air television. This is a significant increase. And the report does confirm that Mildura, the first area for switch-over under the government’s timetable, does have the highest digital TV adoption rate, at 73.3 per cent, largely driven by the availability of an additional commercial broadcasting service in digital.

This bill has been considered by the Senate Standing Committee on Environment, Communications and the Arts and I, on behalf of the coalition, thank the committee and its secretariat for their work throughout the inquiry. One of the key areas of concern raised in the committee’s inquiry was what the government considers to be an adequate level of take-up before switch-over can occur. The bill, regrettably, does not include any readiness criteria as preconditions for switch-over. There is no requirement on the government or the minister that an area is publicly identified as ‘ready’ in advance of the specified switch-over period. The coalition is concerned about switch-over occurring before regions are deemed to be appropriately ready, particularly given that there has been no commitment by the government as yet to ensure that take-up is at an adequate level and that transmission problems such as black spots are addressed prior to switch-over in any particular region. The coalition is attracted to the suggestion submitted by Free TV, an organisation representing all the free-to-air broadcasters in this country, to the committee’s inquiry. In her evidence to the committee inquiry, the Free TV CEO, Julie Flynn, argued for amendments to the bill to require benchmark readiness criteria for switch-over and a review of switch-over readiness against that benchmark for each region six months from commencement. The readiness criteria would be set by the minister and would be required to be made public, and the results of the review into readiness would also be required to be made public. We, on our side, support the arguments put forward by Free TV, and I therefore foreshadow that the coalition will be moving several amendments to this bill to ensure better protection for viewers as the analog signal is switched off.

The coalition do acknowledge the cost burden of the simulcast period, particularly on rural and regional broadcasters—one of the good reasons for switching over in the regions first—and do not want to unduly stand in the way of switch-over, but we do want to make sure that adequate consideration is given to the people who really count, the viewers, and to their readiness to receive digital signals. Further, of particular concern to the coalition is the possibility of transmission black spots. The coalition wants transmission difficulties to be given more attention by the government before switch-over. Indeed, I have been contacted by one gentleman, Mr Inall, who wished to highlight the problems he is experiencing with receiving a digital signal. After spending $1,000 on a set-top box and upgrades to his external aerial, he is still unable to receive the ABC free-to-air signal and continues to rely on the analog signal for viewing the ABC. And, amazingly, Mr Inall lives only five kilometres from the transmission site in Roseville in New South Wales. So that is one of the reasons why the coalition will be moving an amendment that requires the government to table information about the identification of black spots and how these will be rectified in advance of switch-over.

As for the government’s switch-over timetable itself, we again stress that, as many regional centres will be the first to switch over, there does need to be publicly available information about their readiness, and a guarantee that transmission difficulties have been rectified. The government argue that a concrete analog switch-over date will drive the take-up of digital TV—or set-top boxes—and that argument has, of course, some considerable merit. But the government have not specified what they would do if take-up rates were not deemed by anybody to be adequate, nor have they defined a desired take-up rate. The government continue to cite the UK example in that country’s progress towards switch-over, but we do need to be conscious of the difference—naturally—in the geographical size of the two countries and that it is regional centres that will, of course, be moving to switch over in the first phase.

In relation to schedule 1 of this bill, the coalition do not oppose the change in the timing of the two reviews required under the Broadcasting Services Act, noting that the policy intent of these reviews is consistent with our previous policy in government. But I do place on record a couple of the coalition’s concerns with these reviews. In relation to the review of new commercial broadcasting licences, this bill amends section 35A(1) of the Broadcasting Services Act to require the minister to cause the review to be conducted prior to 1 January 2012. Spectrum allocation, as part of the digital dividend, is becoming more and more important, and yet we know it is fraught with difficulty. Even ACMA’s own Five-year spectrum outlook 2009-2014 has acknowledged an inherent degree of uncertainty in predicting spectrum requirements over the next five years.

I believe there is some merit in tying consideration of this review into new commercial licences to the consideration of the so-called digital dividend spectrum allocation—a point raised in the Free TV submission. May I also say, however, that it is difficult to envisage, from my point of view, any circumstances which would warrant the creation of a fourth commercial TV licence, given the increasingly competitive TV broadcasting industry and, of course, the advent of multichannelling with digital TV. In relation to the content and captioning rules of commercial multichannels, the coalition does note the point made by the department in its submission that ‘different regulatory requirements for content and captioning may operate in different parts of the country’ due to the staggered dates of analog switch-off.

The coalition does not want broadcasters, particularly regional broadcasters, to face unnecessary regulatory or cost burdens due to the staggered regional switch-over and, given the potential variance of requirements for broadcasters in different regions, asks that the government listens to the concerns raised about the multichannel content and captioning requirements. The coalition wants the government to ensure that everyone who currently has access to an analog signal will have access to digital signals at the time of the switch-over in that area. The government has stated that a number of assistance measures for consumers and for transmission infrastructure are under consideration, but to have any chance of meeting the minister’s deadline for the switch-over the government will need to provide funding in next year’s budget to ensure switch-over readiness.

We do believe that it is important for the government to provide assistance to ensure adequate preparation for the switch-over. This should include subsidies to assist the disadvantaged in making the switch and funding for digital towers and equipment upgrades, including, most importantly, the self-help retransmission sites as well as black spot elimination initiatives. The government should have in place a strategy to enable community broadcasters to successfully switch to digital. The government needs to provide funding certainty for consumers and broadcasters to facilitate the switch-over in advance of the Mildura switch-over period, which is the first to occur. The coalition, while strongly supporting the full transmission to digital, does want safeguards in place to ensure that Australians who currently have access to free-to-air television will continue to have that same access after the switch-off of the analog signal. Black spots must be identified and rectified, consumer measures need to ensure a high level of take-up before the switch-over, and the government should outline a clear pathway for community television broadcasters to a digital future.

The coalition continues to strongly support the transition to digital. There are of course a number of very evident advantages and efficiencies that will flow to consumers and broadcasters as a result of this transition. But we do not want anyone left behind by this transition. It is the viewers who ultimately count—they are what this is all about. We want to ensure that everyone who has access to an analog free-to-air signal will have access to digital transmissions without excessive personal cost. That is why I, on behalf of the coalition, will be moving amendments to this bill in the committee stage to ensure that there is more transparency in the process and that the government is active in identifying and addressing digital transmission black spots.