Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

The Australian government has brought new laws before parliament that aim to keep sport free for all Australians to watch—except, let me be honest with you here: they do not do that. You need to buy a new TV and subscribe to a streaming service. We're already seeing this with Amazon buying exclusive rights to the ICC tournaments, including the next cricket World Cup. This is a massive problem. You should not have to have a subscription to watch Aussie sport. It is so un-Australian. Is the government really suggesting that you have to be cashed up now to watch Aussie sport on our TVs?

There is another part of this bill that is very important; it's called 'prominence'. Let me explain. When you buy a new smart TV, you plug it in, you turn it on and you see tiles down the bottom of the screen for the different streaming services. You don't automatically see what is free. Let me give you an example. If you search for Bluey on one of these smart TVs, it shows you where you can buy Bluey, instead of showing Aussies that they can watch Bluey for free on our ABC. The government knows they need to fix this, but they need to go one step further.

While Australians have always had free access to sports like AFL, NRL, cricket and the Olympics, global streamers are now buying them up and putting them behind a paywall, like the cricket on Amazon. The bill stops subscription services like those of Amazon, Apple and Disney from buying exclusive broadcast rights, but it doesn't guarantee the availability of free coverage for the increasing number of Australians who rely on the internet for free TV.

The bill should require that free broadcast and free digital streaming rights must be acquired by a free-to-air broadcaster before the event can be acquired by a subscription provider. I will be coming with amendments, and the government should take them seriously because Australians have the right to see sport free on their TV without searching for it and getting stuck with paying for it, which is exactly where you have put them.