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

It is again a little disingenuous of those opposite to suggest that there is suddenly spectrum available today that was not available previously—because the previous government’s policy was to introduce what were referred to as channel A and channel B, and that took all the spectrum. We have been considering all of these issues: whether to proceed with a channel A and channel B option or to allocate spectrum to community television. There are a range of choices in the mess that this government inherited from those opposite, and we are going to give careful consideration to them. What we have committed to and what we will ensure is that community television will have a pathway to the digital future—unlike those opposite, who were considering taking spectrum away from community television to boost channel A and channel B. (Time expired)