Alan Eggleston (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

That was an amazing speech we just heard from Senator Feeney on the motion to take note of answers relating to the Australia Network. One of the things that has been missing in this issue and in discussion over the last couple of days is information. All we have been told are vague outlines such as a tender was called and then earlier in the year it was abandoned, allegedly, because of matters to do with the Arab spring. Now, for the first time, Senator Feeney has given us a little bit of information about how and why that might have been relevant. Yes, Senator Feeney, you have done a good job and provided us with some more information.

Earlier this week we heard that a second tender had been withdrawn, applications had been cancelled and because of 'leaks' this matter was going to be referred to the Australian Federal Police. It is very interesting and very strange. I was on a program yesterday with Doug Cameron and he did not know anything about what might be happening. It is very intriguing to think that a tender for a broadcast service should be referred to the Federal Police. Now Senator Feeney has come forward and done what Senator Conroy, the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, was apparently totally incapable of doing. He has referred to the fact that the government wants to extend the Australia Network television service to the Middle East and North Africa. Why is that such a secret? No-one else has said that and it is obviously not a secret. Yet the minister for communications was incapable of telling us that that was what was planned and that that was the issue. He is the minister and it is up to him to tell members of the parliament and the public in general what the issues were.

Senator Feeney said that the government now wants to do a much wider service, which is very interesting, but of course there are other issues. The Australia Network television service was run from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and I think the Minister for Foreign Affairs is a man called Kevin Rudd. Isn't it strange, as there is a little bit of tension going on about leadership and all that sort of thing? The Australia Network television service is obviously part of Australia's diplomatic amatorium. It conveys the message about our way of life and what is going on in Australia to the people of the Pacific and Asia. So it would seem quite reasonable and logical that responsibility for this service should rest with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, yet strangely enough it has been taken away from that department and put into the Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy headed by Stephen Conroy.