And big benefits to community radio.
The last roadblock to the Turnbull Government’s media reform package may have been removed.
Pauline Hanson’s One Nation, the most strongly opposed party on the Senate cross-bench, has now offered its support but not without a raft of conditions, that if implemented, will mean a big shake up at the ABC.
Without The Greens and Labor, the Government needed 10 out of 12 cross-bench votes to secure victory in the Senate. Pauline Hanson controls four of those 12 votes. Now it depends on getting the Nick Xenophon Team’s three votes across the line and/or the Greens.
This morning Nick Xenophon told ABC Radio’s AM program he “won’t support any bill that alters the charters of the public broadcasters.” Listen here.
In order to secure PHON’s vote, the Government has agreed to the following:
ABC News and Current Affairs to be made more “fair and balanced” (which ironically is a slogan that Fox News in the U.S. once used.)
Legislation will be introduced this year to insert the words ‘fair’ and ‘balanced’ into the relevant section of the ABC Act which would give the Board responsibility: “to ensure that the gathering and presentation by the Corporation of news and information is fair, balanced, accurate and impartial according to the recognised standards of objective journalism.
ABC to provide enhanced services to rural and regional Australia
Nationals’ Senator Bridgett McKenzie has recently proposed a Private Senator’s Bill that will insert words into the ABC Charter to explicitly require a greater focus on regional Australia.
Competitive neutrality inquiry
Commercial broadcasters have long been concerned that the publicly-funded broadcaster is competing against them in the marketplace. For example, expenditure on search engines to drive traffic to ABC websites; commissioning of programs that are already well catered for on commercial outlets and competing for rights to programs and sports broadcasts.
The Government will initiate an inquiry into whether or not the practices of the ABC and SBS are breaching the general principle of competitive neutrality and that they are operating on a level playing field with their commercial counterparts. The Government’s inquiry process will examine these issues and make recommendations.
Transparency in the remuneration of senior staff and on-air talent
The national broadcaster will be required to undertake regular and ongoing disclosure of individual salaries and allowances of staff and on-air talent earning more than $200,000 per annum – a measure recently adopted by the BBC.
Changes to the ABC wasn’t the only item on Pauline Hanson’s reform agenda.
Register of foreign ownership interests in regulated media assets
To increase transparency of foreign ownership of media assets, the Government will introduce legislation before the end of 2017 to establish a public register of foreign ownership interests in regulated Australian media assets (associated newspapers, commercial television broadcasting licences and commercial radio broadcasting licences).
Under this proposal, foreign persons would be required to disclose holdings of 2.5 per cent or higher of these regulated media assets.
A big winner in the Hanson amendments will be community radio, particularly in regional markets.
Additional measures to support community radio
A number of additional funding and regulatory measures to support the community radio sector are proposed. The Government currently supports the community broadcasting industry through the provision of approximately $15.5 million in annual funding via the Community Broadcasting Program (CBP), with an additional $6.1 million provided in 2017-18 and 2018-19 to support community digital radio rollout in regional areas and to assist community broadcasters affected by changes to the 803 to 960 MHz band.
The Government will implement the following additional measures to support community radio:
• Additional funding to support community digital radio ($4.0 million over the forward estimates)
To support community digital radio rollout, the Government will provide further funding to the CBP for an additional two years of $2.0 million in 2019-20 and $2.0 million in 2020-21.
• Enhanced news programming
To assist community broadcasters to maintain or enhance their provision of news content, the Government will provide additional funding towards the expansion of the National Radio News (NRN) service. The NRN service is a syndicated community radio news service that provides subscribing community radio broadcasters with access to four minute bulletins, hourly on weekdays, including a mix of national and international news, sport and finance, along with state-based bulletins.
The additional funding would be tied to expanding the provision of state-based news content, and to support greater take-up of the service by community radio stations. The Government will provide additional funding of $0.8 million per annum over four years to the CBP to implement this measure.
• Greater emphasis on localism for licence applications
To bolster the amount of local programming and content provided on community radio, the Government will introduce legislation before the end of 2017 to amend the criteria against which applications for community radio licences and renewals are assessed to specify a role in informing local communities.
• Improved online presence including the establishment of a central online streaming portal
• Industry capacity and skills development
To support the capacity, skills and competencies of the community radio sector’s workforce and volunteer base, the Government will provide additional new funding towards the industry’s existing National Training Program with a focus on enhancing the management and small-business skills of the sector.
As well as including significant regulatory reforms, the above measures represent a package of additional funding for community radio of $12 million over four years.