Mitch Fifield (Victoria, Liberal Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I acknowledge Senator Bernardi's contribution. I should indicate, or reinforce, that part of the agreement that the government has with Pauline Hanson's One Nation party is a series of measures that relate to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. We have indicated that we will be seeking to introduce those in a subsequent piece of legislation, which will go through the usual processes that we have, but we have agreed to bring that forward.

Again, I want to acknowledge Senator Bridget McKenzie's role, and Senator Bernardi made reference to the private senators' bill that Senator McKenzie has introduced. The fundamental elements of that will be incorporated into government legislation. They will be government policy, and they are part of the agreement that we have entered into with Pauline Hanson's One Nation. To recap very briefly, they include: putting the words 'rural and regional' in the ABC Charter, something that isn't presently there, which we think is a good thing to do, to have that recognition of rural and regional Australia; they will require that there always be two people on the board of the ABC who have experience living or working in rural and regional Australia, and we think that is a good thing; we also think a positive is the establishment of an ABC regional advisory committee, which the ABC management would need to consult with when there is any significant decision that relates to rural and regional Australia. There are also a range of transparency measures that will be incorporated that had their genesis with Senator McKenzie, such as having in the ABC annual report a better breakdown of the resources and staff in metropolitan and rural Australia.

We have also agreed with One Nation that the words 'fair and balanced' be put into the ABC Act. At the moment, the ABC Act says that the ABC, in its news and current affairs, needs to be accurate and impartial. We have agreed that we will also incorporate the words 'fair and balanced'. As I indicated earlier, in chapter 4 of the ABC editorial guidelines it does make reference to the 'weight of evidence' being taken into account when considering balance, so it does indeed refer to 'balance'. Also, the ABC editorial guidelines in chapter 4 talk about 'fair treatment', so 'fair' and 'balanced' are already in the ABC's own editorial guidelines. That being the case, there shouldn't be an issue with that being reflected in the ABC Act. Also, the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's Journalist Code of Ethics makes reference to 'fairness' on six occasions, so I don't think that should be a matter that is controversial.

It has also been referenced that the government will be seeking, as part of that agreement, to establish a competitive neutrality inquiry, which is to examine the claims that are made by commercial broadcasters and also to look at what the ABC and SBS have to say in relation to these matters. Competitive neutrality is a well-established concept. I think it was Paul Keating who really first pioneered it. Essentially, what it relates to is whether a government organisation is using its status to compete with commercial organisations in a way that isn't reasonable. That is just a summary of those ABC measures that the government intends to pursue.

As I indicated, part of our agreement with One Nation is that we will introduce subsequent legislation to give effect to those things. So, while we obviously support the spirit and intent of Senator Bernardi's amendments, we won't be supporting those here in this place. We will be introducing our own legislation to give effect to those, and that, of course, will go through our own internal processes.