Perin Davey (NSW, National Party, Shadow Minister for Water) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak on the Copyright Legislation Amendment (Fair Pay for Radio Play) Bill 2023. From the outset I have voiced my support for Australian artists and the Australian music industry, and all they do for our culture in this country. My concern, however, is that this bill is premature. In fact, Senator David Pocock himself pointed out that, while the cap is one per cent of gross annual earnings, the current agreement with the PPCA and commercial radio is 0.4 per cent—so they're not even paying to the full cap. I want to point out that the PPCA, the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia, who negotiates these arrangements with commercial radio, launched a Copyright Tribunal action in May this year. That action is still underway. Let the process take its course. Let's see what the Copyright Tribunal comes back with and let's see the outcomes of that before we try and rush through a bill that may have unintended consequences.

I get it; I totally understand that our singers, our performers, the principal artists, deserve fair pay. I am someone who spends literally hours in the car listening to both commercial and ABC radio, and local radio. A big shout-out to 2BS Bathurst, 2MG Mudgee and 2QN Deniliquin—if you can't tell, I am an AM band person—and every local radio station across rural and regional New South Wales. If it wasn't for local radio I would be a very frustrated driver.

I absolutely respect Senator Pocock and what he is trying to do, what his intentions are with this bill. I recognise the importance of valuing and supporting homegrown artists. Their creativity, their dedication deserve our appreciation. But I also support my local regional radio stations. And while this bill might seem like a very simple change, removing caps on fees for playing copyrighted songs on the radio, we must also remember that this cap was put in place in return for Australian content quotas. Senator Hanson-Young and I both support Australian content quotas. We'd like to see Australian content quotas on streaming platforms, so we need to ensure that when we have content quotas that are working, we don't inadvertently undermine the system by playing with other linked legislation. The caps and the content quota ensure we hear Australian music on our Australian radio stations. If we lose that content quota, we have the potential to only hear the Americans. As much as I love Taylor Swift, I certainly thoroughly enjoy hearing Fanny Lumsden on my radio. I don't want to lose that.

This bill is not just about copyright. It is about the harmony between the different rights and interests. We've long understood an artist's right to profit must coexist with the public's right to exchange ideas. It is this balance that has allowed us to nurture a thriving media landscape, a space where diverse voices contribute to the beauty and the strength of our national identity. And I fear removing these caps will have a significant impact, particularly on regional radio stations—and I accept Senator Hanson-Young's concerns that commercial radio has been condensed. I certainly, as someone living in the regions, am always concerned when I turn on my local radio station just at the end of the local program and hear it switch straight over to something being streamed from Sydney or Melbourne, and it does happen.

However, we also must acknowledge there are still rules and regulations about the commercial radio licenses throughout Australia. As Senator Cash said earlier, 260 licences throughout Australia and some 220 of those are in regional or remote areas. And there are still requirements for a minimum of three hours locally produced content. Those stations, those three hours of local content, they keep us informed. Turning the radio on and hearing how the Murray cod are biting along the Edward River, hearing how the snow's falling in Cooma—they make us realise how they play a very important role in our local fabric and in our local regional communities. When we have the CEO Sleepout in Deniliquin, 2QN and Edge FM bring their outdoor broadcast tables down to interview the people who are sleeping rough for the night to promote not only the cause, but also because they are part of our community. These radio stations are part of our community, but they are now operating in a vastly different and more competitive environment than when this cap was first put in place and when some of these reports that Senator Pocock mentions in his bill were done.

One of those reports said that commercial radio was doing very nicely, thank you very much. Well, fast forward to today. In this digital age, competition is fierce. Commercial radio is competing against the likes of Spotify and others who don't pay a fee to the PPCA. That is my understanding. Commercial radio needs income via advertising, and they constantly have to prove themselves to the advertisers and improve their listening audience while still battling to get that audience, to get their ears on. And they're battling with car manufacturers—just as our free-to-air television is battling with television manufacturers—for prominence. We need to make sure that we keep our radio in our cars and that we keep our free-to-air television on the televisions that we buy.

My biggest concern is that there are processes underway at the moment. The PPCA has its Copyright Tribunal action ongoing. We need to see the outcome of that. We need to be able to investigate and understand exactly what the impact of removing these caps would be on our Australian music quotas, on the requirement for regional radio to produce local content, on the requirement of regional radio to keep staff and not move licences from location to another. We need to ask those questions and have answers and be satisfied that we won't get perverse, unintended consequences from what is a well-intended position. We can't rush this through and risk the wellbeing of our communities who get a vital service. We saw last year, with the multiple floods, that it was regional radio that provided that lifeline of emergency announcements. If we undermine that and put that at risk then what do those communities do?

While I thank Senator Pocock for bringing this bill to the chamber, I do think it is too early. I think it's premature. I want to see what happens through the Copyright Tribunal. I want to have further conversations with the PPCA, APRA, AMCOS and commercial radio. I'd also like to hear what the ABC thinks, because this will impact the ABC. It is odd that the ABC pays even less, but it is a taxpayer funded agency. I certainly would not want to see the last bastion of regional radio—that being the local ABC—being undermined or squeezed any tighter than it already is.

We've heard from Senator Pocock and from Senator Hanson-Young that the caps are unfair and anticompetitive, and I do agree that it seems odd that songwriters and composers are paid at different rates. But the caps, which are not reached at the moment—payments are still well below the actual cap—were put in place in conjunction with an Australian content quota. I want to make sure I continue to hear Australian music on my Australian radio as I drive the five hours from Deniliquin to Canberra, which I do every sitting fortnight, or as I drive the eight hours from Deniliquin to Mudgee to go and see family and friends up there. As I said, I think it's premature. I think more questions need to be asked and I want to see how the Copyright Tribunal process plays out. I want to have further conversations, and I think that this bill is being presented too early.