Senator BIRMINGHAM (South Australia) (15:01): I move: That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (Senator Conroy) to a question without notice asked by Senator Birmingham today relating to the media. To paraphrase Edmund Burke, in the reporters' gallery yonder there sit a fourth estate more important than all of us. Indeed, he was quoted by Thomas Carlyle, who in his book French Revolutiontalked about a fourth estate of able editors springing up, 'increases and multiplies, irrepressible, incalculable'. Senator Wong: There are no liberals over there now, so why are you espousing liberal philosophy? Senator BIRMINGHAM: I thank Senator Wong for her gratuitous advice. The reality is that not since the advent of the printing press have we seen such a multiplication of able editors and reporters across the media—but of course they are all found in the new media, in the emerging areas of the media, as a result of the transformation that is happening at present in the media. We are getting a very different media environment than we have had before. The real risk inherent in Senator Conroy's answer today is that we have not a fourth estate but a government that desires to apply instead a fourth branch of government, as it is referred to elsewhere. This fourth branch will be created as a result of what the government proposes to do out of its Convergence Review and the review of the Finkelstein inquiry. The government is seeking to impose more regulation at a time when media should be facing less regulation. Today Senator Conroy was given the opportunity to provide some assurances to the media industry that they would not face increased regulation, that they would not face increased costs at a time when the media industry on its traditional platforms is bleeding jobs and bleeding profits. Instead Senator Conroy chose to defer and deflect. He chose to take his old-fashioned approach, the usual modus operandi of Senator Conroy, which of course is to go and attack somebody else; to ignore the question and go on the attack. That is what started this whole process of potential new media regulation—Senator Conroy's desire to attack News Ltd. He called them the hate media. They were the focus of his attack for many a month. They were the reason we ended up with a media inquiry in the first place. Now, he has moved on. He has new targets of attack. His new target of attack is no longer News Ltd but instead Gina Rinehart and Fairfax. They instead are the new targets for Senator Conroy's attack. In doing that Senator Conroy is overlooking the very serious issues that are at play here when it comes to the future of media in Australia. I stand, the Liberal Party stands and the coalition stands for free speech in this country— Senator Wong: Except when it comes to so many things— Senator BIRMINGHAM: We stand for free speech supported by a free media. Senator Wong is welcome to speak next if she wants. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Wong, can we have order and, Senator Birmingham, would you please address your remarks through the chair. Senator BIRMINGHAM: We stand for free speech supported by a free media. It is the most important accountability mechanism to hold this parliament and governments of whatever political persuasion to account. It is what we must fight to preserve at all costs regardless of who the government of the day is. The government proposals that have come forth from the Finkelstein inquiry and the Convergence Review to establish either a news media council or a new independent communications regulator are of course all, in the end, just code for greater government regulation that will give governments of the day greater potential to influence what appears in the media; greater potential to say what it is right to publish or what it is wrong to publish, what is appropriate speech or what is inappropriate speech. The role of government should not be in that space, save for extremely limited circumstances. This government seeks such an expansionary power to dictate what is the appropriate speech and what is inappropriate speech that all Australians should rightly be concerned. Today Senator Conroy had a chance to at least provide some certainty that an industry under pain and threat will not face greater costs and that free speech in this country will be preserved. He chose to reject the opportunity to provide any such assurances and instead continued with his MO, which has always been to find something to attack instead.