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

Even Senator Joyce crossed the floor to oppose your watering down of the cross-media laws. Did you have a convergence review report for 12 months beforehand? No. Did you have a Finkelstein inquiry hold public hearings? No. Did you release those reports? No. Did you have public debate about those reports? No.

Mr President, just to be very clear about these overarching allegations: in the United States, the regulator, the Federal Communications Commission, has, since it was created, assessed whether media or telecommunications mergers would benefit or harm the public interest. I know those on that side are not interested in the public interest when it comes to this. They are more interested in looking after and sucking up to the press in this country and the owners of the press, particularly.