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COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA Official Committee Hansard SENATE ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE ESTIMATES (Budget Estimates) WEDNESDAY, 25 MAY 2005 CANBERRA BY AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE INTERNET The Proof and Official Hansard transcripts of Senate committee hear- ings, 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 avail- able only Official Hansard transcripts. The Internet address is: http://www.aph.gov.au/hansard To search the parliamentary database, go to: http://parlinfoweb.aph.gov.au Wednesday, 25 May 2005 Senate—Legislation ECITA 1 SENATE ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS LEGISLATION COMMITTEE Wednesday, 25 May 2005 Members: Senator Eggleston (Chair), Senator Lundy (Deputy Chair), Senators Bartlett, Con- roy, Santoro and Tchen Senators in attendance: Senators Carr, Eggleston, Fierravanti-Wells, Lundy, Marshall, Moore and Tchen Committee met at 9.07 am COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS PORTFOLIO Consideration resumed from 24 May. In Attendance Senator Kemp, Minister for the Arts and Sport Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts Executive Ms Helen Williams AO, Secretary Ms Fay Holthuyzen, Deputy Secretary, Communications Dr Rod Badger, Deputy Secretary, Information Economy Ms Lynn Bean, Acting Deputy Secretary, Arts and Sport Corporate and Business Mr Frank Nicholas, Chief Operating Officer, Corporate and Business Division Mr Mike Hutchings, General Manager, Information Technology and Facilities Branch Mr Tim Cornforth, Manager, Regional Network Management Unit Finance and Budgets Ms Jennifer Gale, Chief Financial Officer Telecommunications Mr Chris Cheah, Chief General Manager, Telecommunications Mr Simon Bryant, General Manager, Telecommunications Competition and Consumer Branch Mr Brenton Thomas, General Manager, Enterprise and Infrastructure Branch Ms Carolyn McNally, General Manager, Regional Communications Policy Branch Dr Greg Terrill, General Manager, International Branch Mr Tom Dale, General Manager, Strategic Policy Branch Broadcasting Mr James Cameron, Chief General Manager, Broadcasting Mr Gordon Neil, General Manager, Licensed Broadcasting ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS ECITA 2 Senate—Legislation Wednesday, 25 May 2005 Mr Rohan Buettel, General Manager, Public Broadcasting Dr Simon Pelling, General Manager, Digital Broadcasting and Spectrum Management Mr Tom Dale, General Manager, Strategic Policy Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Dr Beverly Hart, Chief General Manager, Information and Communications Technology Division Mr Philip Allnutt, General Manager, Information and Communications Technology Indus- try Branch Mr Simon Cordina, General Manager, Creators’ Rights and Access Branch Ms Andrea Grosvenor, Acting General Manager, Regional Communication Initiatives Branch Information Economy Mr Keith Besgrove, Chief General Manager, Information Economy Division Mr James Shaw, General Manager, Strategy Branch Mr Andrew Maurer, Manager, Online Policy Section Mr Lindsay Barton, Acting General Manager, Access Branch Arts and Sport Division Mr Colin Lyons, Acting Chief General Manager, Arts and Sport Division Mr Mark Taylor, General Manager, Arts, Regional and Governance Mr Peter Young, General Manager, Film and Digital Content Mr Paul McInnes, Acting General Manager, Collections Mr Kevin Isaacs, General Manager, Sport Ms Sally Basser, General Manager, Indigenous Arts and Training Mr Les Turner, General Manager, Indigenous Culture and Arts Support Ms Kate Cowie, General Manager, Old Parliament House Mr Andrew Sayers, Director, National Portrait Gallery Agencies Telst ra Mr Bill Scales AO, Group Managing Director, Regulatory, Corporate and Human Relations Mr Geoff Nicholson, Director, Business and Finance Services Mr Don Pinel, Regional Managing Director, Telstra Country Wide, Queensland Mr Denis Mullane, General Manager, Integrated Network Planning Ms Kate McKenzie, Managing Director, Regulatory Ms Chloe Munro, Managing Director, Human Resources Mr Greg Adcock, Head of Business and Commercial Operations Ms Jenny Young, Head, Consumer Segment Australia Post Mr Michael McCloskey, Corporate Secretary Mr Peter Meehan, Chief Financial Officer Mr Terry Sinclair, Group Manager, National Logistics Mr Rod McDonald, Group Manager, Human Resources ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS Wednesday, 25 May 2005 Senate—Legislation ECITA 3 Mr Stephen Walter, Group Manager, Corporate Public Affairs Mr Glenn O’Bryan, Acting Group Manager, Retail Australian Communications Authority (ACA) Dr Bob Horton, Acting Chairman Mr Allan Horsley, Acting Deputy Chairman Mr Geoff Luther, Acting Member Ms Maureen Cahill, Executive Manager, Communications Operations and Service Group Mr John Grant, Acting Senior Executive Manager, Radiocommunications Mr Mark Loney, Executive Manager, Corporate Management Mr John Neil, Executive Manager, Telecommunications Analysis Mr John Haydon, Executive Manager, Consumer Mr Darren Hooper, Chief Financial Officer Ms Anita Tapper, Acting Chief Financial Officer Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Mr Russell Balding, Managing Director Mr Murray Green, Acting Director, Strategy and Communications Mr David Pendleton, Chief Operating Officer Mr Colin Knowles, Director, Technology and Distribution Ms Sue Howard, Director, ABC Radio Special Broadcasting Service Corporation (SBS) Mr Nigel Milan, Managing Director Ms Julie Eisenberg, Head of Policy Mr Jon Torpy, Chief Financial Officer Mr Will Berryman, Chief Technology Officer Mr Shaun Brown, Head of Television Mr Quang Luu, Head of Radio Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) Mr Giles Tanner, General Manager; Acting Member Mr Fred Gengaroli, Director, Planning Ms Jonquil Ritter, General Counsel Ms Andree Wright, Director, Industry Performance and Review Mr Richard Fraser, Senior Project Officer Ms Sharon Trotter, Acting Manager, Content Assessment Ms Andrea Malone, Manager, Industry Review Arts and Sport Australia Council Ms Jennifer Bott, Chief Executive Officer Ms Karilyn Brown, Executive Director, Audience and Market Development Dr Catherine Brown-Watt, Director, Major Performing Arts Board Ms Megan Coombs, Executive Director, Finance and Services ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS ECITA 4 Senate—Legislation Wednesday, 25 May 2005 National Library of Australia (NLA) Ms Jan Fullerton, Director-General Mr Gerry Linehan, Assistant Director-General, Corporate Services National Gallery of Australia (NGA) Mr Ron Radford, Director Mr Alan Froud, Deputy Director National Museum of Australia (NMA) Mr Craddock Morton, Director Ms Suzy Watson, General Manager, Operations Ms Louise Douglas, General Manager, Public Programs and Audience Development Dr Mike Pickering, Repatriation Program Director; Acting General Manager Mr Jeff Smart, Chief Finance Officer Australian National Maritime Museum Ms Mary-Louise Williams, Director Mr Quentin Howarth, Assistant Director National Archives of Australia (NAA) Mr Ross Gibbs, Director-General Mr James Barr, Deputy Director-General Ms Jenny Anderson, Assistant Director-General, Corporate Australian Film Finance Corporation (FFC) Mr Brian Rosen, Chief Executive Officer Australian Film Television Radio School (AFTRS) Mr Malcolm Long, Chief Executive Officer Film Australia (FAL) Ms Daryl Karp, Chief Executive Officer Australian Film Commission (AFC) Mr Kim Dalton, Chief Executive Officer Australian Sports Commission (ASC) Mr Mark Peters, Chief Executive Officer Mr Brent Espeland, General Manager, Sport Performance and Development Ms Lois Fordham, General Manager, Business Operations Professor Peter Fricker, Director, Australian Sports Commission Australian Sports Drug Agency (ASDA) Mr Kim Terrell, Acting Chief Executive Ms Anne Gripper, Acting General Manager, Operations Ms Catherine Rule, Acting General Manager, Strategy and Support CHAIR—We continue the examination of the Communications, Information Technology and the Arts portfolio estimates. I welcome Senator Rod Kemp, the Minister for the Arts and Sport, to the table today, and the officers from the Arts portfolio, in particular Jennifer Bott, who we are always pleased to see. If we might proceed to questions. Senator Kemp—Before we start, Mr Chair, if I could just make a couple of observations? ENVIRONMENT, COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE ARTS Wednesday, 25 May 2005 Senate—Legislation ECITA 5 CHAIR—Of course, Senator. Senator Kemp—Briefly, senators will know that the Arts and Sport budget was very well received. Not surprisingly; there were very substantial increases in and new money. We are delighted with the reception that the Arts budget and the Sport budget received. I wish to raise a couple of housekeeping matters. These committees are about efficiency and making sure that everyone is accountable. I think the committees have to be accountable themselves. Significant numbers of public servants are involved in these committees. I do not want to repeat the last performance, where we had public servants waiting a whole day and then not called. Some of them, I think, had even flown down from Sydney. What I would like to do, with the cooperation of the committee, is see what we think we can do this morning, so that the public servants that are not needed for the next four hours can do some other work. Then