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

I utterly reject the comparison, the claim—it is utterly false. Let us look overseas. In 2003 the UK introduced laws aimed at ensuring a greater diversity of owners of media enterprises. The laws enable the UK secretary of state when they consider a merger raises public interest concerns to issue an intervention notice. Public interest considerations can range from the need for accurate presentation of news to the need for there to be sufficient diversity of control of media enterprises. So I guess the United Kingdom joins me in that argument. Following an intervention notice from the regulator, Ofcom must then provide a report to the secretary of state with advice and recommendations of the specified media public interest considerations. Ofcom must also report to the secretary of state on representations made with regard to the potential merger. Following receipt of the Ofcom report the secretary of state will consider whether to refer the test to the Competition Commission and will also have the final decision making power over whether the merger can proceed following the Competition Commission's report.

The presence of the public interest media advocate in the Australian law represents a significant improvement over the British model by ensuring that decision making is at arm's length from the government, unlike in the United Kingdom. (Time expired)