Historic media law changes deliver regional enhancements

NEW REFORMS passed the federal Senate last week to deliver a package of 

measures aimed at modernising Australia’s media laws to deal with major 

business disruption caused by internet publishing.

Changes include moves to improve regional media coverage and enhance 

diversity but also to formally increase the ABC’s focus on rural based reporting 

and stronger accountability measures.

Labour and the Greens opposed the historic reforms but the Coalition 

government secured a deal at the last minute, with the support of the 

Nick Xenophon Team (NXT) and One Nation, in the negotiations led by 

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield.

The NXT component of the reform package will see a $50 million Regional and 

Small Publishers Innovation fund created; a regional and small publishers 

program to support 200 cadetships; and 60 regional journalism scholarships.

An Australian Competition and Consumer Commission inquiry into the impact 

of the new digital environment on media will also be conducted.

The deal with One Nation - with leader and Queensland Senator Pauline Hanson 

and other party members highly critical of the $1 billion per year public 

broadcaster’s perceived bias - will see reforms implemented, as put forward by 

Victorian Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie, to enhance the ABC's focus on 

rural and regional Australia.

The One Nation component of the deal will also deliver a competitive neutrality 

review of the ABC and SBS and a $12m community radio package.

Regional Australia Institute CEO Jack Archer said the media reforms 

“had to happen”.

But said he couldn’t see how the mergers to now follow would give any certainty 

for the availability of quality local media in regional areas, in the long term.

“The investment that Xenophon secured will be useful in the short term for some 

small media companies but there’s no way it’s a game changer,” he said.

“In reality no-one knows what the regional media landscape is going to look like in 

five to 10 years.

“We can get information about local sporting results and community events on 

Facebook but can we rely on these platforms for scrutiny of local decision makers 

or to tell the local stories about life for people in the bush?

“Once the coming wave of mergers and restructures in corporate media are finished, government will need to take a hard look at whether regional people have good 

access to independent, quality sources of local news and information.”

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the changes would bring Australia’s media 

laws into the 21st century.

“This is all about protecting Australian jobs - this is all about ensuring that our 

media industry is able to compete effectively with the global online giants,” 

he said.

“The laws restricting ownership in the Australian media were written in a day, 

not just before the internet, but before pay television.

“They were written in another era, in another age and they should have been 

changed a long time ago, but for various reasons they haven't been, but now they 

have.

“My government has delivered reforms that are long overdue in media and 

we’ve done it - this is going to secure the future of the Australian industry.”

Senator Fifield said Australian media companies had been “lumbering” under 

the shackles of media laws designed in the 1980s when Kylie Minogue was still 

singing the ‘Locomotion’.

“They didn't reflect the world that we lived in and they were constraining our 

Australian media businesses from configuring themselves in ways to best 

support

their viability,” he said.

“Thanks to my Coalition colleagues, thanks to the support of the Prime Minister and 

can I particularly single out Senator Bridget McKenzie from the Nationals and 

Senator Dean Smith from my party, who have been great stewards of this 

endeavour with me and with my crossbench colleagues.

“What this package represents is a shot in the arm for Australian media 

organisations; it will give them a fighting chance.”

A major component of the government’s reform package will abolish redundant 

media ownership rules that shackle local media companies and inhibit their ability 

to achieve the scale necessary to compete with foreign tech giants.

Broadcast licence fees have also been abolished and replaced with a more modest 

spectrum charge, while there will also be a substantial reduction in gambling 

advertising during live sport on all platforms.

But diversity protections have been retained to ensure multiple controllers of 

television and radio licences and minimum numbers of media voices in all 

markets including a minimum of four independent media voices in regional markets.

The reforms will also see higher minimum local content requirements for 

regional television following trigger events, including introducing minimum 

requirements in markets across Victoria, SA, NSW, WA and the NT.

Fairfax Media CEO Greg Hywood welcomed the government’s changes to 

modernise media laws, while acknowledging the industry’s unified position 

on the legislation and thanking Malcolm Turnbull, Senator Fifield and 

cross-bench Senators.

Xenophon: reforms to address internet driven media “crisis”

NXT leader and SA Senator Nick Xenophon said the legislation dealt with the 

regulation of Australia's commercial media companies “which are in crisis thanks 

to the internet's disruption of established business models for journalism and 

publishing”.

“Broadcasters and publishers are operating in rapid technological change 

and intense competition for audiences and advertising revenue; not only 

from other media companies, but perhaps most fundamentally from 

foreign technology companies - Google and Facebook - which have aggregated 

news and content while separating publishers from digital revenue streams,” 

he said.

“Fewer and fewer journalists are churning out more and more digital product, 

but more and more of that is churnalism: recycled and repackaged PR handouts 

and celebrity trivia.

“The production of one form or another of click-bait appears to be an increasingly 

favoured business model in an environment of declining revenue, constant churn 

but ever more shallow content. 

“In this environment increasing PR manipulation, spin and fake news are i

ndicators of a deep malaise.”

But Senator Xenophon said the NXT supported the government's legislation to 

modernise media regulation and help the Australian industry to deal more 

effectively with the challenges they face.

“Many of us have long presumed that a free and vibrant media is essential for 

a well-informed citizenry and a vibrant democracy,” he said.

“But it can't be assumed that current media business models, especially in a 

market increasingly dominated by foreign technology companies, will necessarily 

serve that important democratic role.

“I don't think anyone could say our media industries are healthy today, and with 

that our democracy is not healthy either.”

Senator Xenophon said the NXT and government’s agreement would establish a 

one-off regional and small publishers innovation fund involving $18m worth of 

grants a year over three years, from the 2018/19 financial year.

He said the government would set up the fund so that the first round of grants 

could be announced no later than June 1 next year.

“The purpose of the fund is to assist small publishers to transition, compete 

and innovate more successfully in a changing media environment,” he said.

“The grants will be able to be used by publishers for initiatives that support 

the continuation, development, growth and innovation of Australian civic journalism, including initiatives that explore and expand the journalism funding model.

“In the context of this agreement 'civic journalism’ is defined as journalism that 

has the primary purpose of investigating and explaining public policy and issues of 

public interest or significance with the aim of engaging citizens in public debate and informing democratic decision making.

“Grants could be allocated, for example, to programs and initiatives such as the 

purchasing or upgrading of equipment and software, development of apps, and 

training, all of which will assist in extending civic and regional journalism.

“The criteria should be broad and flexible, but will not extend to the payment of 

salaries or costs directly associated with a particular journalistic initiative.”

Publishers with an annual turnover of not less than $300,000 in revenue and 

not more than $30 million in revenue will be eligible.

Large publishers such as News Corporation and Fairfax will be ineligible and 

public broadcasters, while funding grants would be capped at a maximum of 

$1m per year for any media group.

In addition, NXT and the Government have agreed to funding that can 

provide opportunities for students, including graduates, in regional areas 

to access journalism training.

Culled from: 

http://www.queenslandcountrylife.com.au/story/4938074/historic-media-law-changes-deliver-regional-enhancements/?cs=4698