Monday, October 16, 2006
The Horse has Bolted
AT last, the die is cast.
After a decade of debate, lost opportunity and a last-minute intervention by Peter Costello, Australia's restrictive media laws are about to be reformed.
The final outcome of tense negotiations between Communications Minister Helen Coonan and the Nationals is a mish-mash - the kind of result typically delivered by politicians horse-trading over their obsessions, rather than being driven by good public policy.
Yet good policy is the reason put forward to explain the Treasurer's action yesterday after he managed to impose an ownership limit of two out of three media in a single market.
Before the 1987 "queens of screen" legislation designed by then treasurer Paul Keating, media companies could (and did) own newspapers, radio stations and a television station in one market.
Keating's law limited ownership to a single medium. John Howard's Government twice attempted to overturn this rule. It failed in 1998 and again in 2001. Coonan's original package provided for the abolition of the restrictions, subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The Nationals, fearful of a single-owner takeover of regional media, pushed hard for a limit of two out of three.
They also demanded a legislated minimum amount of 4 1/2 hours of local programming and 12 1/2 minutes of local news services on rural radio stations each day.
After a decade of debate, lost opportunity and a last-minute intervention by Peter Costello, Australia's restrictive media laws are about to be reformed.
The final outcome of tense negotiations between Communications Minister Helen Coonan and the Nationals is a mish-mash - the kind of result typically delivered by politicians horse-trading over their obsessions, rather than being driven by good public policy.
Yet good policy is the reason put forward to explain the Treasurer's action yesterday after he managed to impose an ownership limit of two out of three media in a single market.
Before the 1987 "queens of screen" legislation designed by then treasurer Paul Keating, media companies could (and did) own newspapers, radio stations and a television station in one market.
Keating's law limited ownership to a single medium. John Howard's Government twice attempted to overturn this rule. It failed in 1998 and again in 2001. Coonan's original package provided for the abolition of the restrictions, subject to approval by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.
The Nationals, fearful of a single-owner takeover of regional media, pushed hard for a limit of two out of three.
They also demanded a legislated minimum amount of 4 1/2 hours of local programming and 12 1/2 minutes of local news services on rural radio stations each day.
