Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Finkelstein made a whole range of recommendations to the government, as did the convergence review, and in different places they conflicted. The government has considered all of them, and the ones we agree with we are moving forward with. Let me be very clear: this government passionately believes in freedom of the press as a cornerstone of our democracy. At the same time, however, the government believes that in a democracy a diversity of voices within the media is essential. The public interest test, which is continually being conflated with the Press Council issues, is completely separate. The public interest test is about dealing with mergers between entities that have certain weight and influence and, as we describe it, voice, and that has got nothing to do with Press Council standards. The government is not proposing to fund, as Mr Finkelstein suggested, a press council. It is not interested in the slightest and it is not proposing to set any standards for the Press Council.

All of these claims that you keep hearing repeatedly are completely false. The public interest test is an assessment of whether or not a voice will be lost when the merger proposal is considered. That is the point of the public interest test, because those opposite weakened our cross-media laws in a way that can see fewer voices in a democracy. That is why we opposed it at the time—even Senator Joyce, as he noted yesterday, opposed it— (Time expired)