The devil in the detail: The deals the government made to get media reforms across the line
The government’s success in the Senate last night in abolishing broadcasting restrictions came at a cost, with over $70m in concessions to One Nation and the Nick Xenophon Team.
A $10m scheme for cadet journalists, a $50m media innovation fund and $12m to support community radio stations are the main ticket items agreed to by the government along with an ACCC inquiry into Facebook and Google’s powers and changes to the ABC’s charter.
The Nick Xenophon Team’s deal will see the government create two schemes – a $10m program for 200 cadet journalist positions and a regional and small publishers innovation fund that will give out $16.7m a year over three years.
Publishers with an annual turnover between $300,000 and $30m in revenue will be eligible for a maximum of $1 million per year. Larger publishers are ineligible.
The innovation fund will explicitly exclude salaries, but will cover equipment and capital costs to assist small publishers to “transition, compete and innovate more successfully in a changing media environment,” as an NXT media release stated.
Overseeing the programs will be the responsibility of Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) with input from the Australian Press Council, the Walkley Foundation and Country Press Australia, Xenophon said at a press conference yesterday.
Xenophon gave scant detail of the terms of reference of the planned ACCC investigation into Facebook and Google beyond saying he had spoken to the regulator – however the Senator described the online services as “an existential threat” and being similar to the rail and oil ‘robber barons’ of the past.
Xenophon also indicated he sees tax surcharges and strengthened copyright laws as being part of the curbs placed on Google and Facebook’s market power.
The Senator also indicated he supports One Nation’s agreement, which includes a $12m package for community radio, describing it as “huge for regional communities”.
Community television will get a six month license extension through until 30 June 2018 with the Government holding a roundtable discussion on the sector’s future.
Unfortunately for One Nation, Xenophon repeated his insistence that the party’s demands to reform the ABC’s charter and conduct a inquiry into the government broadcaster won’t be supported. Despite the likelihood their demands will not be agreed to by the Parliament, One Nation voted for the government’s package.
Along with changes to market reach rules, there will be changes to the anti-siphoning rules which were previously indicated. Coupled with the subsidies to Foxtel for women’s sport, the pay-TV sector comes away with some wins.
The Nick Xenophon Team’s amendments passed yesterday which slightly increase local coverage requirements means the bill has to go back to the House of Representatives before it becomes law sometime later this year, however the Senator sees the changes making a difference to Australia’s media landscape.
“This will make a real difference for journalism in this country, if we value journalism and our democracy,” Xenophon concluded. “I have done my level best to try and redress the crisis that journalism is facing in this country over a number of years.”
This article has been updated following a media release from the NXT Party which clarified a number of the innovation fund’s aspects.
“This will make a real difference for journalism in this country, if we value journalism and our democracy,” Xenophon concluded. How can that be when there is a real risk that media ownership will eventually be dominated by News Corp, thanks Nick for selling us out.
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I think this is devastating. The last thing we need is less media diversity in this country. And, what a surprise, this has allowed Murdoch to launch a fresh bid for Channel Ten. Just in time. How convenient, and what a disaster.
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do love the sentiment but let’s just do a little math on that cadet journo thing:
* $10m, 200 cadets
* Fairfax,News regionals can apply – so that’s about 150 small regionals which are actually owned by giant pubishlers – WTF.
* Oversight by ACMA with help from APC, Walkley, CPA and so forth…cost of oversight, admin, travel, bureacracy? Let’s just take 20% away straight up
* No salaries for innovation fund? That’s reallly going to help journo’s a lot. I’ve got a giant computer here with a big fat AI program on it that writes most of my stories. Can I get some that pie now?
Pretty sure this is a cluster f&*k.
Pretty sure now that News and Fairfax can actually access all this money, no real small publisher who runs journos (Mumbrella for eg? but more particularly country based small independents) is going to see one red cent of this money. If indeed any of it makes it to the light of day after ACMA get through with setting things up.
I don’t like being cynical but seriously.
Supporting small publishers, innovation and journalism? Bull fucking shit.
How is a small country town publisher going to compete with the resources and back up of News, Fairfax etc in applying for and running these cadetships?
How did they even get on the list. Lobbying I guess. I hate fairfax even more than I did yesterday. News we always hated. At least though they’re up front about taking every cent they can off the table for themselves. Fairfax are snakes.
I thought Xenophon was OK. But he’s an idiot.
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