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

I appreciate that you were not able to quote anyone to sustain your question, Senator Minchin. Let me repeat the words of Mr Rupert Murdoch who yesterday said, ‘It is not going to be possible to sustain the advertising model.’ He said it himself. At the News Corp shareholder meeting, he also went on to say:

In fiscal 2010, we will depend on advertising for significantly less of our total revenues across the company and I am confident this trend will continue to grow in the coming years

What we are seeing here is a model that, without the measures that this government is putting in place, is in structural long-term decline. This is a permanent shift or, to borrow from your favourite commentator at the moment, Mr Cox, ‘a paradigm shift’ occurring in this sector. So let me be very clear: this government is ahead of the game. (Time expired)