Dean Smith (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator McCarthy for that contribution because, as I was listening to it, I thought to myself, 'What very, very powerful arguments they are for the government's media reform package.' I will get to this in more detail as I progress in the time that is available to me tonight, but I think there is a misunderstanding about how you preserve diversity in the Australian media landscape, but more particularly and more urgently: what is the current risk and threat that exists to diversity in the Australian media landscape? I will come to that in a moment, because there are some very informed views around the issue of diversity that come from media operators themselves and, as well informed as we might be in this place, no-one understands the media business better than media operators themselves. And, importantly, the Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has made some important comments in regard to media ownership and its effect on diversity in the media landscape.

Let's be clear about this: what the Labor Party is doing in the Australian Senate this evening by delaying and, I suspect, ultimately voting down the government's media reform package, is to delay the government's attempts to better protect Australian children from gambling advertising.