Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I will address my comments to all of the amendments, as the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate did. I thank the opposition for not pushing the minor amendments (1) and (3). However, what has now transpired and seems to be clear is that the three remaining, which have the support of Senator Xenophon, may put the bill in jeopardy as we prefer our amendment, which deals with black spots in our terms. We urge Senator Xenophon to consider his position in respect of that.

More broadly, on the totality of the amendments that have been pursued here tonight, the government recognises that there are numerous television reception black spots in Australia and that there is some community concern as to how these black spots may be addressed in the lead-up to switch-over. Under the government’s amendments, the ACMA will be required to report on transmission infrastructure issues. This will align reporting requirements to existing obligations for broadcasters under the commercial and national television conversion schemes and place the reporting responsibilities on the government entity required to formulate and oversee the conversion schemes. This will more effectively and efficiently achieve the apparent policy intentions of the Senate amendments to the bill.

The government amendments will also require the minister to report to parliament every six months on progress made in converting existing self-help retransmission facilities and on progress made in addressing digital transmission black spots. It is a position that the government is serious about progressing. If the amendments of the opposition on this matter are supported and get up, the bill will not be acceptable to the government and it will fail.

I will deal briefly with the opposition amendments that were passed by the Senate requiring that minimum analog switch-off readiness criteria be determined by the minister and that the switch-over readiness of local market areas be assessed against these criteria. These amendments have the potential to delay digital switch-over in Australia. This is because the switch-over readiness criteria would be likely to delay analog switch-off in a particular area unless the readiness criteria had been met. This would mean that the original switch-over date would not be perceived as a firm switch-over date by industry, and viewers, believing there was no firm switch-over date, would not prepare themselves for the switch to digital.

It seems clear that, where you do not provide that certainty, you will not get the switch-over. The community—the viewers—and the industry will not take that as a given and start to switch over from that date. The research in the UK indicates that 16 per cent of people will not make the switch to digital where there is no firm switch-over date. There is no impetus to do so. It seems quite clear, certainly from the government’s perspective, that a firm switch-over timetable is important to give certainty to industry and consumers. This has been the overwhelming experience in overseas countries that have already gone through or are in the process of switching to digital.

Australia is already substantially behind the Western developed world in switching to digital TV. Digital TV was introduced by the previous government in 2001, and after eight years it is in only 42 per cent of Australian homes. These amendments as they stand will adversely affect switch-over. Switch-over is an important communications issue. It will bring better quality TV and more channel choice to viewers and it will also free up spectrum for new communications services.