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

No, but I did something about it. When the switchover is complete, in 2013, all Australians will have access to metro-equivalent TV services, whether they live in Bourke or Bundaberg or anywhere else. This is something that those opposite failed to achieve for regional and remote Australia, despite digital TV being available in capital cities since the year 2000.

Under the Labor government's digital switchover program, free-to-air broadcasters have embraced the opportunity to provide a greatly increased number of channels to Australian viewers. The increased channel choice from switching to digital television is a historic outcome for people in regional and remote Australia, where many people have had limited television choices for decades, some with as few as four analog television channels. This is now changing as a result of Labor's commitment to regional Australia.

The government has provided assistance to enable commercial television broadcasters in parts of regional and remote Australia to deliver the full range of digital TV channels to their audiences via terrestrial broadcasts. For those viewers unable to access these— (Time expired)