Katy Gallagher (ACT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

The opposition will be supporting the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Digital Radio) Bill 2015. Digital Radio has been a part of the communication landscape in Australia since the Labor government implemented it in 2009. On 1July 2009, the Labor government delivered commercial digital radio licences to Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Designated community radio broadcasters started broadcasting from these areas in May 2011. Adding to these services, digital radio trials in Canberra and Darwin mean that around 64 per cent of the Australian population live in areas currently covered by digital radio transmissions.

The legislation that regulates these broadcasts, namely section 215B of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 and section 313B of the Radio Communications Act 1992, need to be constantly reviewed to ensure the rules and standards that govern digital radio are working as intended. To this end, the Minister for Communications is required to initiate a statutory review process and, over the last couple of years, has done that. The process has been a consultative one and subsequently a discussion paper has been developed.

In July 2015, the government released the report that emerged from these reviews and the bill we are considering today draws on the recommendations of that report. Whilst the matters in this bill are uncontroversial and will attract the opposition's support, we note that this bill has not enacted a number of the other recommendations that may require a greater level of scrutiny before we agree to support them. We look forward to the early engagement of the government as they prepare any further amendments to the regulatory structure for digital radio. This bill contains the more non-controversial elements arising from the report and has been widely supported by industry.

The bill makes a number of minor amendments to the regulatory structure around digital radio in Australia. Specifically, the bill proposes to: repeal the restricted datacasting licence category; remove the minister's role in setting a 'start-up day' in regional licence areas; remove the requirement for a six-year moratorium on the allocation of additional digital commercial radio broadcasting licences in a licence area; define amendments to 'non-foundation digital radio multiplex transmitter licence'; and make minor consequential amendments to both acts. These amendments reflect redundant provisions in the act or remove the parts of the act that have proven unnecessary since digital radio services commenced in 2009.

I commend the bill to the Senate.