SENATE Official Committee Hansard
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COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA SENATE Official Committee Hansard ENVIRONMENT, RECREATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE Reference: Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998 and Datacasting Charge (Imposition) Bill 1998 FRIDAY, 5 JUNE 1998 CANBERRA BY AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE CANBERRA 1998 INTERNET The Proof and Official Hansard transcripts of Senate committee hearings, some House of Representatives committee hearings and some joint committee hearings are available on the Internet. Some House of Representatives committees and some joint committees make available only Official Hansard transcripts. The Internet address is: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard SENATE ENVIRONMENT, RECREATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE Friday, 5 June 1998 Members: Senator Patterson (Chair), Senator Schacht (Deputy Chair), Senators Allison, Eggleston, Lightfoot and Lundy Substitute members: Senator Tierney Participating members: Senators Abetz, Bartlett, Bolkus, Boswell, Bourne, Brown, Calvert, George Campbell, Carr, Colston, Coonan, Cooney, Crane, Faulkner, Ferguson, Harradine, Hogg, Lightfoot, Mackay, Margetts, Murphy, Neal, O’Chee and Tierney Senators in attendance: Senators Colston, Eggleston, Lightfoot, Lundy, Patterson, Schacht and Tierney Terms of reference for the inquiry: Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998 and Datacasting Charge (Imposition) Bill 1998 WITNESSES GILBERTSON, Mr Graeme John, Managing Director, South East Telecasters Ltd, 51 John Watson Drive, Mount Gambier, South Australia 5290 ...............153 WESTON, Mr Dion, Chief Executive Officer, Spencer Gulf Telecasters, 76 Wandearah Road, Port Pirie, South Australia 5540 ..............................153 MILAN, Mr Nigel, Managing Director, SBS, 14 Herbert Street, Artarmon, New South Wales .......................................................169 SHARP, Ms Chris, Policy Manager, SBS, 14 Herbert Street, Artarmon, New South Wales .......................................................169 SOOTHILL, Mr David, Director, Communications and Planning, SBS, 14 Herbert Street, Artarmon, New South Wales ................................169 BELL, Mr Anthony Edward, Managing Director, Southern Cross Broadcasting (Australia) Limited, 41-49 Bank Street, South Melbourne, Victoria 3205 .....181 DRAFFIN, Mr Garry, Chief Executive Officer, Telecasters Australia Limited, Level 8, 1 Elizabeth Plaza, North Sydney, New South Wales 2060 ...............181 KENNEDY, Mr David, Principal Consultant, Cutler and Company, 7 Leveson Street, North Melbourne, Victoria 3051 ...................................181 RUSHTON, Mr John Illingworth, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, WIN Television Network, Locked Bag 8800, South Coast Mail Centre, New South Wales, 2521 ........................................................181 SYPHERS, Mr Warwick David, Finance Manager, Prime Television Limited, Level 6, 1 Pacific Highway, North Sydney, New South Wales 2066 ...............181 EISENBERG, Ms Julie, Business Development, Communications Law Centre, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales 2052 ........193 GIVEN, Mr Donald John, Director, Communications Law Centre, University of New South Wales, Kensington, New South Wales 2052 .......................193 DEWS, Mr Nigel James, General Manager, Business Development and Online Services, John Fairfax Holdings, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney, New South Wales ........210 LEEDER, Mr Nicholas John, Business Strategist, John Fairfax Holdings, 201 Sussex Street, Sydney, New South Wales ...................................210 BRITTON, Ms Anne, Joint Federal Secretary, Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, 245 Chalmers Street, Redfern, New South Wales .......................229 HERD, Mr Nick, Executive Director, Screen Producers Association of Australia, 144 Riley Street, East Sydney, New South Wales 2010 ......................229 ATHERDEN, Mr Geoffrey John, President, Australian Writers Guild, 60 Kellett Street, Kings Cross, New South Wales ....................................229 Friday, 5 June 1998 SENATE—Legislation ERC&A 153 Committee met at 9.08 a.m. Matter referred by the Senate: Datacasting Charge (Imposition) Bill 1998 and the Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998. GILBERTSON, Mr Graeme John, Managing Director, South East Telecasters Ltd, 51 John Watson Drive, Mount Gambier, South Australia 5290 WESTON, Mr Dion, Chief Executive Officer, Spencer Gulf Telecasters, 76 Wandearah Road, Port Pirie, South Australia 5540 CHAIR—I declare open the second public hearing of the Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts Legislation Committee on the Television Broadcasting Services (Digital Conversion) Bill 1998 and the Datacasting Charge (Imposition) Bill 1998. The committee prefers that evidence be given in public, but should you at any stage wish to give your evidence, part of your evidence or answers to specific questions in camera you may ask to do so and the committee will consider your request. I point out, however, that evidence taken in camera may subsequently be made public by order of the Senate. I welcome the representatives of Spencer Gulf Telecasters and South East Telecasters. The committee has before it submission No. 9, which it has authorised to be published. Are there any alterations or additions you would care to make at this stage? Mr Weston—Yes. I have some bound copies here which I could provide to you of a more elaborate submission based on the very preliminary statement that we provided by the deadline last week. CHAIR—Thank you. Do you wish to make a brief opening statement? And I mean brief. Mr Weston—Yes. Basically, we represent a very small portion of the Australian free to air television industry, but one that we think has lost out a bit in terms of the way that this legislation has come before the parliament. The free to air television industry generally is highly regulated in this country; it is the same the world over. Reading the information provided by the minister in the explanatory memorandums, et cetera, this legislation is fundamentally about providing an environment for the existing industry to modernise, protecting as far as possible the existing Australian free to air television production industry and enabling Australians to benefit from the enhancements of digital technology as soon as possible. As solus market operators—that is, markets where there is only a single commercial television station at the present time—basically a microcosm of those same issues apply to us in slightly different ways. Our main concern with the legislation is that it is disproportionate in the way that it has affected us. On page 4 of the revised submission we have lodged, there is a diagram that indicates that the capital impost in our service area—which is a measure of our ability to recover the capital outlay that is involved—is $342 per viewer in our area, compared with $192 per viewer in the aggregated major regional television markets down the east coast and only $64 in a household in a metropolitan area. Because of the way that the legislation is currently written, not only is there that impost or that differential but we have been provided with none of the measures that the government have put in place to alleviate the impact of that impost, particularly the moratorium on additional licences. Those measures have been given to the metropolitan areas and the three station markets applying across the board to the smaller markets. In essence, they are our major concerns. It is such a disparity that it does impact on the potential viability of our businesses. ENVIRONMENT, RECREATION, COMMUNICATIONS AND THE ARTS ERC&A 154 SENATE—Legislation Friday, 5 June 1998 CHAIR—Thank you very much, Mr Weston. Senator SCHACHT—First of all, gentlemen, it is good to see you again—Dion, from all those years ago at 5 Triple M, as it then was, and Graeme, from the south-east. You are good South Australians. Can I go to this issue you have raised in your submission and the expanded submission you have just given us. It is not the opposition’s fault that you have had only such a short time to prepare these things; that was a government decision. The concern you raised in your submission is that the moratorium on new free to air commercial television licences to 2008 in effect does not cover the situation of SES 8 or GTS 4. Mr Weston—No. It affects all of those markets which are not currently three-station markets. Senator SCHACHT—Have you had an opportunity to discuss with the Department of Communications and the Arts the way this was drafted? Was this an accidental slip-up in the drafting arrangements by the government which they did not anticipate or is it a policy issue where they deliberately did not want to apply the moratorium to your television markets? Mr Gilbertson—My understanding is that it was a deliberate omission—that the government were not in favour of extending the moratorium to cover our situation. In our submission, we go into many, many reasons why we believe this is unfair. That was the information given to me yesterday. Senator SCHACHT—Only yesterday? Mr Gilbertson—Yes. Mr Weston—From my perspective, it appears that a number of aspects of the legislation were considered fundamentally from the impact on the broader industry. The way this element of it has come about was not something that they deliberately did; it is something they have had to consider subsequently. In the process of considering it subsequently, they