Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in relation to the Communications Legislation Amendment (Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund) Bill 2017. I concur with many of the comments put forward by Senator O'Neill in relation to this bill, particularly when she spoke about the consistent attacks from the government on the Australian public broadcaster the ABC. And let's not forget their constant attacks on SBS as well.

We saw that again last night. Despite all the promises when Tony Abbott was vying to be the Prime Minister back in 2013, when he was the Leader of the Opposition, and he said that there would be no cuts to the ABC, well, that was wrong. Over and over and over again what we have seen from the Liberal government are cuts to the ABC. Last night more cuts to the ABC were in the budget handed down by the Treasurer, Scott Morrison. This government really doesn't like public interest journalism, and the reason they don't like public interest journalism is because they don't like the scrutiny that comes with it.

This bill before us today relates directly to the deal that was done with former Senator Xenophon at the time of the passing of the two-out-of-three rule and the media reform package. It was a pretty dodgy deal at the end of the day. It was pretty measly in terms of the bang for its buck and, ultimately, what we saw was Senator Xenophon give cover to the government—to agree, with the insistence of One Nation and Pauline Hanson, that the ABC would continue to be a punching bag for their side of politics.

One Nation, of course, hate the ABC. They always have and always will. They can't stand that we would have well-trained, quality journalists asking tough questions. They can't stand it. Senator Pauline Hanson cannot stand the fact that there are ABC journalists in this place, up in the press gallery, who ask the tough questions. She'd prefer that no-one questioned what she stood for, her motives or why she says one thing in Queensland and does another thing in the chamber here.

Obviously, when she's in Queensland, Senator Pauline Hanson, leader of One Nation, goes around telling everybody that One Nation cares about the battlers. But One Nation come down into this place and they vote with the government time and time and time again for tax cuts for the wealthy and tax cuts for big corporations. They're now asking the taxpayer to fund the compensation that the banks should pay as a result of the royal commission looking into people who have been screwed over by the banking industry. They want the taxpayer to fund the compensation. They want to give the banks a big tax cut and they want the taxpayer to foot the bill. It's just extraordinary.

So of course Senator Pauline Hanson doesn't like the idea that the ABC and SBS have good quality journalists who ask the tough questions. One Nation want to see their funding cut and, of course, last night in the budget that's what we saw: funding cuts to the ABC—funding cuts to the ABC despite the promise from Malcolm Turnbull and, previously, from Tony Abbott that that would not happen. Well, you just can't take their word for anything any more.

However, as part of the deal that was done with the Xenophon team, this bill puts aside money to help small publishers to ensure that there is some element of support for public interest journalism. But, of course, the government couldn't stand the idea that some other, smaller publishers and players in this space—people and journalists who offer good quality public interest journalism, such as journalists who write and report for The Guardianmight be able to get some of this financial support. So this bill says that only some people—small country News-Limited-owned papers, for example—can access this fund; if you're a journalist doing good investigative work for The Guardian, you're not allowed to have any of it.

This is an ideological bill in the way that it has been drawn up. It's ridiculous that we're now seeing, even though Senator Xenophon isn't even in the chamber anymore—he's not a member of the federal parliament—that his legacy is a dodgy deal put on the table that allows for the government to follow through with their ideological attack on public interest journalism. Indeed, it gave cover to the government's continual attack on the ABC and One Nation's attack on the ABC.

We know that, at the time that this bill was being negotiated with former Senator Xenophon, former Senator Xenophon said:

The government's position was that the Guardian Australia's parent entity was foreign and therefore would not qualify. I do not believe this is relevant. What is relevant is that Australian news stories and analysis are being produced by Australian journalists.

He went on to say:

I fear that there was narrow, blinkered ideology at play on the part of some Coalition backbenchers and some crossbenchers… You have to ask whether blind ideology, yet again, got in the way of sensible public policy.

It's not very often that I agree with the words of the former Senator Nick Xenophon, but on this one I absolutely do.

But, as Senator O'Neill has pointed out, despite all of that he still did the deal. So that is why we have this piece of legislation before us, which is an ideological bandaid from this government. It gives cover to the attack from One Nation on the ABC and it gives cover to the hatred of The Guardian and the ABC by some coalition backbenchers, probably some of their frontbenchers too. We know what the Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, thinks of the ABC and thinks of The Guardian: he can't stand them. So they have now put in place a fund that is restricted, because of their own ideological blinkers.

The role of government is not to just support your mates because your mates want you to; it's to do things in the interest of the whole country. It is not up to the government to decide that, because they don't like the ABC reporting on them or asking the tough questions, or The Guardian doing good investigative work, they won't get funding. They will be thrown under the bus while the Murdoch press and News Limited can get a free ride. This is effectively a taxpayer handout to News Limited. That's what this bill allows for: a taxpayer handout to News Limited and the Murdoch press.

If you walked down the street and you spoke to the average Australian and you said, 'The Australian public is going to restrict money going to foreign companies and foreign journalists', do you think they'd think that the Murdoch press were foreign or Australian owned? What do you think people on the street would say? I don't think anyone thinks Rupert Murdoch is Australian—not anymore. He's got no interest in looking after Australia; all he's interested in is continuing to build his big multimedia Murdoch empire. Meanwhile, just because journalists in this country—who are covering Australian stories, doing good investigative work and ensuring that as parliamentarians we do our job—happen to work for The Guardian, or some other media outlet, they're not entitled to the same support. That's what this bill does. It's simply extraordinary.

We will be moving an amendment to this piece of legislation to try and rectify this problem and to remove the ideological blinkers that have been embedded in this piece of legislation as part of the dodgy deal with the Nick Xenophon Team in order to give cover to One Nation's attack on the ABC, SBS and, of course, The Guardian. This amendment is important. It will remove the effect of the narrow, blinkered ideology that the former Senator Nick Xenophon referred to.

Let's remember what this bill is meant to be about. It is meant to be about supporting Australian journalism. We want to support Australian journalism. The Labor Party wants to do that. We've heard from the government that they think they want to do that—I will take that with a grain of salt. The Greens want to do that. Obviously, some members of the crossbench want to do that. But, unlike the government, we don't just want to support the journalists that we agree with. We are simply saying that, if we're going to support journalism with Australian tax dollars, let's support Australian journalists writing Australian stories for Australian audiences. That should be the criteria if we care about investing, protecting, underpinning and supporting public interest journalism in this country.

This should not be a controversial position. The Greens will move this amendment to remove this blinkered ideology that says that money can only go to the government's friends on its side of politics. The government has suggested that, if this amendment passes, it will not proceed with the bill. And here drops the penny: this government doesn't give two hoots about journalists' jobs in this country. This government doesn't give two hoots about whether small publishers are able to continue doing their good work, ensuring that they can report local stories for local audiences. This government would prefer, if The Guardian was included or if there was an element that allowed for The Guardian to be included in this, no-one got any support at all. Malcolm Turnbull would rather have no money going to any news outlet than have a single dollar go to The Guardian. That's the government's position in relation to the Greens fixing this bill to remove the blinkered ideology and to ensure that we support Australian journalism across the board.

We, of course, here in the Greens, take a more balanced approach. We say that it's not the job of the government to decide which side of the political media you want to support and which side you want to let hang out to dry. Our amendment, that will be moved in the committee stage, strips out the government's ideology test on who can and who can't have access to the funding model. This is public money. It's not the government's money, it's not Malcolm Turnbull's money, it's certainly not the backbenchers in the coalition's money and it's not Pauline Hanson's One Nation's money. This is Australian taxpayers' money. Every Australian has the right to know that their taxes are being spent fairly and outside of a politically ideological bent, and yet this government reveals itself over and over and over again as having no care for anyone else unless they're on its side of politics.

Think about the tax cuts that were announced last night. The government don't care about the people at the bottom end, really. They want to go to a situation where we do away with a progressive tax system, because all they're interested in is looking after their rich mates. They don't care if people at the bottom end need public services, schools, hospitals and access to doctors, because their mates can afford to use the private system. Their mates can afford to go and spend their money where they want and get the services when they want.

People at the lower end of the income brackets are doing it really tough, but this government doesn't give a damn. It's blinded by its ideology. Whether it's media reform, whether it's tax reform or whether it's anything else that comes before this place, this government overplays its hand every time and unveils its grotesque political ideology for all to see. This bill is a blatant misuse of public money, and an abuse of public trust for Malcolm Turnbull and Mitch Fifield to decide which—