Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It will come as a great surprise to the chamber to learn that my question is to the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Conroy. I refer the minister to his proposed establishment of the public interest media advocate which, under his ironically titled News Media (Self-regulation) Bill, will accredit the work of organisations like the Press Council and the Independent Media Council. Will the minister give one specific example to the chamber of egregious handling or dismissal of a complaint about a specific news story that he would have expected to have been prevented under his proposed reforms?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Birmingham, because he is diligent as always, has actually said he is talking about the legislation. Because what the legislation demonstrates is that the public media interest advocate has no role at all, no legal role, arising from this legislation in dealing with individual complaints or adjudications. It has no role. So I want to congratulate Senator Birmingham because he does appear to have read the legislation and be asking a thoughtful question about the potential impact. I can assure you, Senator Birmingham, that there is not one word, not one sentence in the legislation that has the advocate having anything to do with any of those things. So congratulations.

George Brandis (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I raise a point of order on direct relevance. The question referred the minister to the proposed establishment of the office and said: 'Will the minister give one example of egregious handling or dismissal of a complaint about a news story that he would expect to be prevented under his proposed reforms?' That is all he was asked—if he could give a single example. If there is no example he can say so. If there is an example he can say so. But he was not asked about the legislation; he was asked to give a single example of a news story that would be affected by it.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. The minister is answering the question. The minister has a minute and three seconds remaining. The minister.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Mr President. But let me give you an example of the behaviour of some newspapers that are members of the council and the type of issue that Senator Birmingham is asking about. This is the evidence from Professor Dennis Pearce, a chair of the Australian Press Council. What did he tell the Finkelstein inquiry? He said:

Indeed, we had one period when The Australian newspaper did not like an adjudication we made and they withdrew from the Council for a period of months.

Mr Finkelstein asked him:

Was that a direct consequence of a particular adjudication?

And the answer from Professor Pearce was:

It was indeed. They said that our adjudication was wrong, and they were not going to publish it, and they didn't.

He went on to say:

It is the old story … you don't give the person who is going to criticise you too much money, because they'll only criticise you better.

(Time expired)

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I have a supplementary question. I refer the minister to his claims that his media reforms do not propose any changes to existing self-regulatory standards. Will the minister therefore be instructing his hand-picked Public Interest Media Advocate to accredit the existing operation of both the Press Council and the Independent Media Council without any changes to the code contents, standards, processes or membership?

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again, unfortunately, Senator Birmingham possibly has not quite completed reading the legislation, as I thought he had so diligently, because it is quite clear in the legislation the minister can give no directives whatsoever to the advocate—none, zero. So those opposite on the one hand are claiming it is heavy-handed government intervention—'You're regulating the standards'—yet your very own questions demonstrate, from your first question and now this question, you are actually arguing completely contradictory positions as usual. So the answer is that those opposite are not interested in having a press council that will actually look after the interests of ordinary Australians. They are interested in protecting the interests of the proprietors who do their best, as the evidence shows— (Time expired)

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I have a further supplementary question. I refer the minister to his previous statements that these media reforms were a 'take it or leave it' proposition, with no negotiation to be entered into. With the Prime Minister backing down on this absurdity this morning, will the minister now back down on demands that all of these bills be passed by Friday, so that the public, industry and parliament can properly assess issues such as the impact of the Public Interest Media Advocate on a free media?

Opposition Senators:

Opposition senators interjecting—

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! Interjections are disorderly. When there is silence I will give the minister the call. The minister.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I reject the underpinning assertion on which that question is based. It is an attempt to misrepresent what the Prime Minister said. It is a total misrepresentation—and then you add the bile and you add all of the rest on top and you come up with that question. What is clear from this line of questioning so far is those on that side of the chamber want to see a further contraction in media ownership in this country. They would prefer to see fewer media owners than exist today. They, unfortunately and quite astonishingly, have decided—

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for the Murray Darling Basin) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on a point of order. Seriously, in terms of relevance the minister has strayed a long way on this matter. The minister is now rambling about the ownership of media in Australia rather than dealing with the question which was specifically about the timing for the passage of legislation through this parliament and his commitment that it had to be done and dusted by the end of this week.

Government senators interjecting—

Jacinta Collins (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for School Education and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I rise on the point of order: I make the point that several of my colleagues around have just done—that was not indeed the question that was asked, and Senator Birmingham knows that.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There is no point of order. The minister still has 15 seconds.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Those on that side do not want to stand by and see a press council that is able to actually deal with complaints that ordinary citizens want to make. The press have enormous power and with that power comes responsibility. (Time expired)