Kelly, Craig, MP

Mr CRAIG KELLY (Hughes) (17:28): I rise to speak on the first two bills of this dog's breakfast of a package of legislation on media reform, the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Convergence Review and Other Measures) Bill 2013 and the Television Licence Fees Amendment Bill 2013. Firstly, comment needs to be made on the absolutely shambolic way that this government has brought these bills into this House. What is the urgency? What is the rush? Why do these bills need to be rushed through parliament in a few days without due consideration, ignoring the constitutional processes that this House and the Senate can use to consider these bills? What is the rush? We know what the rush is: this government is in its dying days and looking to rush this legislation through parliament without due consideration. The coalition is willing to support these two bills of the six that have been introduced recently, and we will vote on these as stand-alone propositions. These bills include measures that reduce annual licence fees paid by commercial broadcasters, set Australian content rules for the multichannels and amend the ABC and the SBS charters. However, the coalition will move an amendment to one measure in the Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Convergence Review and Other Measures) Bill, which has the effect of ensuring that only the ABC may offer a Commonwealth funded international broadcasting service such as the Australia Network and Radio Australia. The coalition believes—and I imagine most of the public would believe—that these publicly funded services must remain contestable. If we enshrine in legislation that only the ABC can run Australia Network or Radio Australia to reach overseas, we risk that service being just another monopoly. Without any risk of competition coming in, it becomes uncontestable. This is a recipe for reduced standards; it is a recipe for lower quality. In fact, we want the Australia Network, which goes overseas, to have the highest quality to promote Australia. The only way to do that is to make sure that service remains contestable. This bill, as it is, will prohibit that. That is why we should have some support for the coalition's amendment. We should also look at the absolute debacle we had previously in terms of the Australia Network tender under this government. Cabinet twice over-ruled unanimous Public Service advice that Sky News be given the 10-year contract. What was the point of having a tender if this government did not even want one of the tenderers to have the possibility of winning? Not only did the best tenderer not win the tender to provide that Australian service around the globe but the government's bungling in this debacle actually cost taxpayers $2 million in compensation that had to be paid. Two million dollars may not seem much in the context of the waste and mismanagement and the record debt we have seen from this government, but that is another $2 million that Australian taxpayers have to pay that has been put on the long line of waste and management of this government. The other slight concern I have with this bill is on the SBS charter. The SBS charter provides that the SBS will have at least one non-executive director who has an Indigenous background. We need to be very careful about having such quotas. There is no reason that we could not have several non-executive directors of SBS who have an Indigenous background. It is a very dangerous track to go down to have special requirements for race for someone taking on any position—whether it is in government or in the private sector. I will leave my comments there. There is a lot more that needs to be said on these other media bills, which will hopefully be brought to the House tonight. Again, I ask: what is the rush? We still have a Senate committee sitting today. These bills should not be rushed through parliament. It is bad process. It is another example of the dysfunctional government we have, and their chaotic processes. We need an election sooner rather than later.