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Labor Senators' Minority Report
Procedural failings of the inquiry
Labor Senators note certain
concerns regarding the conduct of this inquiry.
On 20 June 2007, the Senate referred the Bill to the
ECITA Committee for inquiry and report by 30 July 2007. Submissions
were invited to be received by no later than Friday, 13 July 2007.
The first submission (from the Victorian
Privacy Commissioner) was not received until 16 July 2007.
On 16 July 2007,
the Committee informed members that submissions were expected from Free TV,
Telstra and Optus.
On 17 July 2007,
the Committee then received a submission from the Officer of the Privacy
Commissioner. On 18 July 2007, submissions were received from the ABC and Free TV
Australia.
On 18 July 2007,
the Committee scheduled a teleconference for 19 July 2007 at
1pm.
At the teleconference on 19 July 2007, it was agreed to put questions on notice to DCITA
for its response.
On 25 July 2007,
responses to the questions were received from DCITA.
On 26 July 2007,
the Committee held a further teleconference at which they discussed the DCITA
responses and agreed to hold an inquiry on either of Monday 6 August or Tuesday 7 August 2007.
On Friday 3 August 2007, the date for the inquiry was confirmed as 7 August 2007.
On 3 August 2007,
the Committee received a further late submission from Telstra. This report was
circulated to some but not all Committee members on 3 August 2007, however, it was
not passed on to one Labor Senator until 6 August 2007.
No submission was received from Optus.
The Inquiry was held on 7 August 2007.
On 8 August 2007:
- at 12.11pm the Committee received
a copy of the Chair's draft report, which dealt with the datacasting provisions
of the Bill, that took up the majority of the inquiry, in 3 pages; and
- at 6.45pm the Labor Senators were
informed by the Secretariat that if they did not agree with the Chair's report
and they wished to submit a Minority Report it was required immediately.
Labor Senators note their concern at the
Government's actions in taking less than a day to consider the exchanges and
discussions at the inquiry, to issue the Chair's report and to demand a
Minority Report.
There is no cause for such expediency - other
than the Government's clear desire to table the Report and have the Bill introduced
and passed as soon as possible.
The way in which this process
was handled demonstrates again the lengths the Government will go to ensure
that their bills are simply rubber stamped by the Committee and passed through
Parliament.
Legislative short-comings
identified
The submissions received
raised 2 key issues in relation to the Bill. These are as follows:
- The datacasting provisions of the
bill which amend the Radiocommunications Act 1992 to give ACMA
“flexibility” with respect to spectrum management functions, by providing ACMA
with the power to vary the frequencies on which datacasting transmitter
licences operate.
There
is concern that there will be technical problems related to interference of the
proposed Channel B with broadcasters in the Sydney, Gold Coast and Sunshine
Coast areas and that the provisions of this Bill will be called into play
sooner rather than later and that the Bill does not provide for consultation
with stakeholders or a thorough assessment of the impact of any such change in
frequency.
- The privacy provisions of the Bill
which authorise ACMA to disclose “authorised disclosure information” to
Ministers their staff and various state and federal government agencies and to
Australian and overseas media and communications regulators. However, the Bill does not
adequately address privacy concerns or provide adequate protection of
confidential information.
Conclusion
Labor Senators consider that
the short time frame between the inquiry and the receipt of the report and the
meeting to consider whether to adopt the report did not allow the Committee to
consider these issues in detail.
Senator Kate Lundy
ALP, Australian Capital Territory
Senator Ruth Webber
ALP, Western Australia
Senator Dana Wortley
ALP, South Australia
Senator Stephen
Conroy
ALP, Victoria
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