Mitch Fifield confident two-out-of-three rule will pass Senate
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has expressed confidence his full suite of media reforms will pass the Senate, despite rising concerns Labor may not support the abolition of the two-out-of-three rule.
Communications Minister Mitch Fifield optimistic about getting media reforms through the Senate
Fifield said the unanimous support for media owners for the reforms was a strong signal that the full package should be supported by the Senate and that conversations with all parties remained ongoing.
Speaking outside the ACMA Australian Content Conversation conference in Sydney Fifield was quietly confident.
“Every media organisation in the country is saying that this package of reforms should be passed in its entirety and that is what I’m talking to my colleagues about and that conversation will continue,” Fifield said.
“I think that its great that we have got the entire Australian media industry as one saying that these reforms should be passed as a package, as whole.
“I give credit to the leaders of Australia’s media industry that they’ve been able to look beyond their own legitimate organisational interests to the wider interests of the Australian media industry. So I’m talking to my cross bench colleagues , talking to my Labor colleagues, talking to my Greens colleagues, but there is every reason why this package should be support as a whole.
He said he wanted the package to be put to parliament as soon as possible.
“As manager of government business in the Senate I am by nature a legislative optimist so this is a Senate that has worked, this is a Senate where the government has had good success.”
Hi Simon thanks for the informative article.
What are your thoughts on what will happen next if the Communications Minister can’t get the two out of three rule past the Senate. Will the bill fail altogether or will the media industry accept that the rule needs to be dropped in order for the remainder of the bill to pass?
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