Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

It is plain and simple. However you want to gild the lily, Senator Canavan, it is a lie, it is a broken promise. That is what your leader has done. You have the opportunity, though, to not support it. So, why don't you do the right thing and actually not support this broken promise? Maybe then you will be able to go back to your electorates and hold your heads up high. At this point in time, all you can do is go back to your electorates and say that it has been a broken promise by this government—no cuts to the ABC and SBS. That is exactly all you have done: cut our public broadcasters to a very deep degree, to the point that SBS is turning into a commercial broadcaster. Those of us on this side of the chamber will always stand by our public broadcasters for the greater good of this country, for the telling of Australian stories, including multicultural stories. And that means that these cuts should not happen. We will not turn SBS into a commercial channel by stealth.