Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to rise tonight to participate in the adjournment debate. Last Monday evening I attended the first function held by the Parliamentary Friends of Free TV, here in Parliament House. It was an opportunity to hear directly from some of the biggest names in Australian sport on the future of sports broadcasting. I was particular taken by the contribution of the former Australian cricketer, now a broadcaster, Mel Jones on how important free-to-air broadcasters are to the growth of women's sport. Mel, a fellow Victorian, spoke passionately about the growth of all forms of women's sport and predicted an explosion in participation and audience numbers in coming years. The importance of our free-to-air broadcasters as part of this process should not be underestimated.

Like me, many senators have noticed the huge crowds flocking to new sporting codes like the Women's Big Bash League and the women's AFL. These crowds are so big that the chief executive of the AFL had to lock the gates and issue a personal apology to disappointed fans waiting outside—and, by the way, as much as it pains me: congrats to the Adelaide Crows. But even these huge crowds were dwarfed by the number of people watching at home. The first round of the AFLW attracted a national free TV audience of almost one million people, and the final of the Women's Big Bash peaked at over 700,000 viewers. As a very keen netballer, I am very happy to see netball back on prime time television and to see the flow-on effects of that deal and the financial contribution it has made to the sport.

This audience reach increases the profile of women's sport and of the athletes. In turn, this increases the athletes' ability to market themselves and their sport and inspire a whole new generation of potential superstars. It is a virtuous cycle that is underpinned by partnerships between free-to-air broadcasters and women's sporting codes. For me, though, the importance of the growth in women's sport is actually greater for those girls who may never play in front of huge crowds or have a million people watching them on TV. It is crucial for those girls who are inspired to join their local club and just give sport a go. Unfortunately, there is much research around that suggests girls stop playing sport from about year 8. There are a variety of reasons, but one of them is that they are not able to picture themselves as somebody who might go on to participate in sport into adulthood. My hope is that Mel Jones is right and we are about to see an explosion in women's sport, and that it is felt right down at every local netball court across the country. I hope that, unlike me in the early eighties, heading off to the Benalla cricket ground to try to get a game with the local team only to be told, 'Girls don't play this sport,' young women right across the country can participate not just in netball, not just in tennis but, indeed, in cricket, football, rugby et cetera. It will be great.

It does not have to be just netball. One of the great benefits of the growth of digital television and multichannels is that Australians can now see many more types of sport that previously may have struggled to get a look in. Take, for example, the rise in interest in the modern pentathlon following the gold medal winning performance of Chloe Esposito at the Olympics. Indeed, this is why I am such a strong supporter of the anti-siphoning list. This list ensures that sporting events like the Olympic and Commonwealth games are not available just to those who can afford them. It is worth remembering that 99 per cent of Australians receive free-to-air TV and that it is watched by 13 million Australians daily. By comparison, less than 30 per cent of Australians pay for access to subscription television. You only need to examine the UK experience when cricket moved from being shown by Channel 4 and Sky in 2005 to being shown only on subscription TV: not only did audience numbers drop 92 per cent, but participation in cricket has seen a 32 per cent fall since the pay TV transition. This occurred at a time when—as hard as it is to believe—the English cricket team was No. 1 in the world. The sport should have been booming locally. This is something that, as Australians, we cannot allow to happen here, and that is why we should continue to support such a strong anti-siphoning list.

Of course, the importance of free TV goes well beyond sport, particularly for those of us in regional Australia. Quality free-to-air services are vital for regional and rural Australia. Free-to-air television delivers regional news services that are trusted for their local focus. Local news services mean local reporters, including sports reporters, camera operators and all the other support staff who contribute to the making of a news service. This means local jobs for regional Australians, often young Australians at the beginning of their careers in the industry. I recognise that the free TV industry faces numerous challenges as it attempts to compete with multinational streaming services like Netflix and YouTube, which do not face many of the regulations imposed on our own local broadcasters. We want a strong, healthy and vibrant broadcast sector in Australia. That is why I was concerned to learn that our free-to-air broadcasters are still paying the highest broadcast licence fees in the world. In fact, our broadcasters pay licence fees 115 times greater than those in the USA and almost 19 times greater than those in the UK. If we want to be able to continue to receive the local stories, Australian dramas and live sport for free, we will need to make some tough decisions and put our broadcasters in the very best position they can be, in a challenging environment, to deliver for our local communities.

The government has already taken steps to ensure that big global streaming services like Google and Facebook pay tax here in Australia. This is an important step, as it will help offset the cost of the urgently needed licence fee relief for our broadcasters. Australian free-to-air broadcasters already pay corporate income tax, but that will continue to shrink as their revenues fall and if we do not act to bring the licence fee regime back into line with

international best practice. This is critical if we want our broadcasters to continue to provide and invest in regional news services and local programming of interest to our local areas.

Important in this equation are the roles of the ABC and SBS in providing unique services to Australians that are not already provided by commercial broadcasters. We must never forget the reasons why taxpayers fund the SBS and ABC. They are funded to provide unique programming that contributes to our sense of national identity and to reflect Australia's multicultural society. They are not funded to mirror the services already provided by the commercial sector, or to only speak to certain sections in our community. I am on the record in several spaces over my time here in this parliament to ensure that both SBS and the ABC particularly service rural and regional Australia's needs in this area rather than competing with commercial broadcasters in urban spaces. We need national broadcasters that truly deliver on their charters, rather than churning out a poor imitation of what is already provided for free on commercial television. One example that has been mentioned to me recently is SBS's recent offering The Chefs' Line. Here is a program that is incredibly similar to reality cooking shows already available on free-to-air TV. You have to wonder how this sort of programming does anything to promote the important objectives that are set out in SBS's charter.

I am a strong supporter of our national broadcasters. I believe they deserve public funding to ensure that they meet their charter obligations and deliver high-quality services in line with those charters. But principally I am concerned that they do more to deliver for regional Australia. The recent announcement by the ABC is a welcome first step in moving their focus from Ultimo back to the regions. I would encourage the management of SBS to look at this example and reacquaint themselves with their own charter. They have an important role to perform in Australian society, and I will continue to encourage them to focus on delivering it.

The vision for the future has to be of a strong and vibrant free-to-air broadcasting sector, one that competes with all comers on a level regulatory playing field—a sector that is willing and able to invest and innovate in local services and in content that is valued by all Australians. We need efficient national broadcasters that use taxpayers' money in the delivery of unique services in line with their charters.

I am looking forward to more women's sport being televised, showcasing the possible to young women as they take up new sports, as role models show what strong, skilled athletes are doing across a range of sports. I remember netball back in the day. The first broadcaster that picked up netball was the ABC with the Commonwealth Bank Trophy. You had to get up very early on a Sunday morning to watch that particular national competition. Now we have a fantastic broadcasting agreement with a commercial provider, which is brilliant. That is what we want to see—that type of investment. Tough decisions will need to be made to realise that vision, but we have little other choice. The services to all Australians, particularly those in the regions, are too important for us not to take urgent action now.