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Broadcasting Services Amendment (Material of Local Significance) Bill 2013

Introduced into the Senate on 12 March 2013
By: Senator Xenophon

1.1        This bill seeks to amend section 43A of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 to include regional South Australia in the list of licence areas which require a regional aggregated commercial television broadcasting licence. In doing so, this area would be covered by the provisions in the Act that require television broadcasting licence holders to have specific local content requirements as set out by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

1.2        Currently section 43A of the Broadcasting Services Act 1992 requires broadcasters in seven regional areas in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania to have a condition on their licence requiring them to broadcast a minimum level of material of local significance. This does not apply to any regional areas in South Australia, Western Australia, the Northern Territory or the Australian Capital Territory.

Compatibility with rights

1.3        The bill is accompanied by a self-contained statement of compatibility which states:

This Bill engages the right to enjoy and benefit from culture, as set out in article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and article 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).

The Bill seeks to maintain this right by ensuring that regional communities, beyond those already included in the Act, continue to have access to broadcasted content and material that is locally relevant and meaningful to them.

1.4        Article 27 of the ICCPR provides that, where ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to these minorities must not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practise their own religion, or to use their own language. As the UN Committee has noted:

this article establishes and recognizes a right which is conferred on individuals belonging to minority groups and which is distinct from, and additional to, all the other rights which, as individuals in common with everyone else, they are already entitled to enjoy under the Covenant.

...

The protection of these rights is directed towards ensuring the survival and continued development of the cultural, religious and social identity of the minorities concerned, thus enriching the fabric of society as a whole.[1]

1.5        As article 27 of the ICCPR is directed to protecting the cultural, religious and social identities of minorities, applying the need for local content to all of Regional South Australia does not appear to fall within article 27's remit.

1.6        However, article 15 of the ICESCR is much broader. It recognises the right of everyone to take part in cultural life. The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has noted that this provides for a right of everyone:

to know and understand his or her own culture and that of others  through education and information, and to receive quality education and training with due regard for cultural identity. Everyone has also the right to learn about forms of expression and dissemination through any technical medium of information or communication...[2]

1.7        The committee agrees that the bill appears to promote the right of everyone to enjoy his or her culture in accordance with article 15 of the ICESCR.

1.8                 The committee considers that the bill does not give rise to issues of incompatibility with human rights.

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