Bills Digest 137 1996-97
Broadcasting Services Legislation Amendment Bill 1997
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as introduced
and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest does not have any
official legal status. Other sources should be consulted to determine the
subsequent official status of the Bill.
CONTENTS
Broadcasting Services Legislation Amendment Bill 1997
Date Introduced: 19 March 1997
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Communication and the Arts
Commencement: On the day on which the Act receives the Royal Assent
The purpose of the Bill is to make minor consequential amendments to the
Broadcasting Services legislation to re-locate provisions concerning annual
licence fees for commercial radio and television from the former Broadcasting
Services Act 1942 to the Broadcasting Services Act 1992, and
to rectify a small unintended anomaly in the cross-media rules.
The Broadcasting Services Act 1992 (the Act) is the cornerstone
for regulation of broadcasting throughout Australia.The Act establishes
the Australian Broadcasting Authority (ABA) which has the responsibility
for planning, licensing and program regulation for the industry.The ABA
also monitors the industry by way of research on community attitudes and
the investigation of complaints.The Act also contains the cross-media
rules and the limitation on foreign control of television.
The cross-media rules involve considerations of concentrations in the
media and the need for diversity of views and opinions in a free and democratic
society.The cross-media rules are complex but, basically, they prevent
a person who controls a television licence from also controlling a newspaper
associated with the television licence area.Similarly, the cross-media
rules prevent a person who controls a radio licence from also controlling
a newspaper associated with the same licence area as the radio licence.For
newspapers, the association within the broadcast licence area is relevant
when at least 50% of the circulation of the newspaper is within the licence
area
The cross-media rules have created an unintended consequence in that
the rules do not differentiate between major metropolitan daily newspapers
and small-run local newspapers.The problem has been highlighted in cities
such as Brisbane where the broadcast of a major radio station is also
received in the nearby City of Ipswich which has a local daily newspaper
as well as the major metropolitan dailies.Common ownership of the radio
station and the local newspaper is a problem under the existing cross-media
rules even though the population covered in the newspaper circulation
may not be significant.A practical but ad hoc solution to the problem
has been to artificially reduce the impact of the circulation by the distribution
of some free copies of the local daily. (1)
The Bill addresses this problem by adding to the cross-media provision
on newspaper circulation (50% within the licence area) another criterion
that the circulation must also cover at least 2% of the licence area
population.
The Bill is part of a package which also includes the Television Licence
Fees Amendment Bill 1997 and the Radio Licence Fees Amendment Bill 1997
which apply a requirement for the payment of annual commercialbroadcast
licences, respectively.
Note: The provisions in the Bill are implemented by way of Schedules
to the Bill.The terminology used will therefore be Items in the Schedule
and not Clauses in the Bill.
Schedule 1
Item 2 is the key provision in the Bill.It adds to the criterion
in section 59 of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 which determines
that a newspaper is associated with the holder of a commercial radio broadcasting
licence if 50% of the circulation of the newspaper is in the broadcasting
licence area, the additional criterion that the circulation of the newspaper
must also involve at least 2% of the population in the licence area.If
the two criteria are applicable then common ownership of the radio broadcasting
licence and control of the newspaper is proscribed under the cross-media
rules.The cross-media rule is being modified so that small local newspapers
are not treated as if they were an influential metropolitan daily newspaper.
Where a newspaper is 'associated' with a commercial radio broadcasting
licence area, the name of the newspaper must be entered into the Associated
Newspaper Register by the Australian Broadcasting Authority.
The additional criterion does not apply to commercial television broadcasting
because of the larger market coverage of television, particularly in regional
licence areas.
Item 3 amends the table of persons who may apply to the Administrative
Appeals Tribunal concerning a decision by the ABA to enter the name of
a newspaper on the Associated Newspaper Register to allow an appeal
by a licensee of a commercial radio station.Previously, the right of appeal
was confined to a television licensee or the publisher of a newspaper.
Item 5 inserts a new Part 14A - Accounts and payment of
licence fees in the Broadcasting Services Act 1992.This
new part simply provides the administrative arrangements for the application,
payment and penalties for non-payment of licence fees imposed under the
separate taxing statutes, the Television Licence Fees Act and the
Radio Licence Fees Act.
Schedule 2
Item 1 in this Schedule repeals spent provisions from the Broadcasting
Services (Transitional Provisions and Consequential Amendments) Act 1922
(Transitional Provisions Act) which dealt with the option to convert
certain AM commercial radio licences to FM commercial radio licences.The
Item also repeals section 22 (Licence Fees) of the Transitional
Provisions Act as a consequence of the inclusion of proposed licence
fee provisions in this new legislative package of Bills.
There is another view to the justification for this minor amendment
to the cross-media rules as expressed in the Background,
above.In a letter to the Editor of the Australian Financial Review,
under the heading 'No such thing as a non-controversial media amendment',
(2) Sue Ferguson of the Communications Law Centre in Sydney queries the
timing of this proposed amendment given the current debate over cross-media
rules.Ms Ferguson suggests that it may be more appropriate to allow such
proposed amendments to be consider in the context of a wider public inquiry
into the cross-media rules.
- See Second Reading debate in the House of Representatives on the Broadcasting
Service Legislation Amendment Bill 1997, especially that of Hon Michael
Lee, Member for Dobell Hansard, House of Representatives, 14 May 1997:
3542.
- Ferguson, S. 'No such thing as a non-controversial media amendment',
Letters to the Editor Australian Financial Review, 15 May 1997.
Brendan Bailey
23 May 1997
Bills Digest Service
Information and Research Services
This Digest does not have any official legal status. Other sources should
be consulted to determine whether the Bill has been enacted and, if so,
whether the subsequent Act reflects further amendments.
IRS staff are available to discuss the paper's contents with Senators
and Members and their staff but not with members of the public.
ISSN 1328-8091
© Commonwealth of Australia 1997
Except to the extent of the uses permitted under the Copyright Act
1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without the prior written consent of the Parliamentary Library,
other than by Members of the Australian Parliament in the course of their
official duties.
Published by the Department of the Parliamentary Library, 1997.
This page was prepared by the Parliamentary Library, Commonwealth of
Australia
Last updated: 23 May 1997
|
