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

I thank Senator Troeth for that question. I know that she has a long and ongoing interest in community television. As she has correctly identified, the government did not resolve the issue and that challenge community television has to move from the analog era to the digital era. It is 18 months since we came to government. The previous government first announced that it was going to move from analog to digital in 2001. By 2007, when they lost the election, seven long years later, they had done absolutely nothing to identify a pathway for community television to survive the analog to digital switch. So it has always been a little rich for those opposite to cry crocodile tears when it was in their hands to solve this dilemma and give them the spectrum and give them the funds to build a multiplex. All of these issues were in the former government’s hands.

This government has been engaged in extensive consultations. We have met many times with the representatives of community TV. We have considered a range of issues. There have been proposals put forward by community TV which they themselves have subsequently withdrawn to try and find this pathway. We continue to be committed to delivering an outcome and a pathway for community television to move from the analog world to the digital world. We will be having further meetings with them in coming months to work through these issues with them.

If it were as simple as Senator Troeth implied in her question, why didn’t you fix it when you were in government? Why were you unable to resolve this? There have been a whole range of spectrum issues— (Time expired)