Mr Danby asked the Minister representing the Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, upon notice, on 28 May 2003:

(1) How often is the number of SBS radio programs for ethnic groups re-evaluated.

(2) When was the last change in these schedules and who makes these changes.

(3) In respect of these changes, (a) is it relevant that some communities have other foreign language media, such as community radio and newspapers, (b) is protection of the language a relevant factor, (c) is religion as well as language considered; if so, is the Minister aware that (i) sociologists consistently report that the census significantly underestimates the number of Jews in the population because many Jews consider Judaism a nationality rather than a religion, and (ii) many Jews do not want to be identified as Jewish because of their experiences during World War II, and (d) is this taken into account when making programming decisions.

(4) How many (a) Hebrew, (b) Yiddish, (c) English language Jewish community programs has SBS radio had for the past 10 years.

(5) Can the Minister confirm that Jewish community programs have been recently cut; if so, why were these cuts made.

(6) What was the old program schedule, what is the new program schedule and what is now scheduled for Friday at 3 p.m.

(7) Is the Minister aware that (a) the Jewish Sabbath starts at sun-down on Friday, (b) the Friday 3 p.m. program is the most useful for the community, and (c) the Friday program has a higher number of listeners than the Wednesday 3 p.m. program; if so, why was the Friday 3 p.m. program cut instead of a different program.

(8) What communities have had increased programming.

(9) Can the Minister confirm that the most recent census figures indicate that the number of Yiddish speakers decreased by 169 or around 13%; if so, why did Yiddish programs lose 33.3% air time.

(10) Is it relevant that (a) there are no other Yiddish media outlets; if so, (i) was this considered and (ii) what were the deliberations; if not, why not, and (b) Yiddish is an endangered language and should be protected; if so, (iii) was this considered and (iv) what were the deliberations; if not, why not.

(11) Is the Minister aware that the processing of answers to question 15 on the 2001 Census about languages other than English (LOTE) presents a problem in relation to Yiddish speakers because (a) only one language listed as “other” is counted and speakers of “stateless” languages, such as Yiddish, have always had to be at least bi-lingual, and (b) it asks about languages spoken at home and Yiddish is predominantly an older person's language, so while it may not be spoken at “home” with the family, it could well be the individual's preferred language when speaking to contemporaries; if so, were these factors considered in determining the new SBS Radio scheduling arrangements.

(12) Can the Minister confirm that the most recent census figures indicate that the number of Hebrew speakers increased slightly; if so, why did Hebrew programs lose 33.3% air time.

(13) Is it relevant that there are no other Hebrew media outlets; if so, (a) was this considered and (b) what were the deliberations; if not, why not.

(14) Will the Minister provide a breakdown of the sources of revenue received by SBS radio.

(15) Are there paid advertisements or sponsorships from government agencies, such as Centrelink, the Australian Taxation Office, or the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs; if so, (a) which Government agencies have contracts with SBS, (b) what is the sponsorship/advertising arrangement, (c) in which programs do they advertise; and (d) how much do advertisements cost in each language/community program.

(16) Are different amounts charged to advertise in different language/community programs; if so, (a) why, and (b) is this considered in making programming decisions; if so, is this a breach of SBS's non-commercial public function.

(17) From whom do the Jewish community programs receive advertising/sponsorship and is this considered in programming decisions and how much do they receive.

(18) From whom does the community/language program which is scheduled to replace the program on Friday at 3 p.m. receive advertising/sponsorship and how much does it receive.

Mr McGauran (Minister for Science) —The Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts has provided the following answer to the honourable member's question:

(1) SBS advises that the allocation of SBS Radio program hours to language communities is re-evaluated periodically either following a Census or at times of changes to total broadcast hours.

(2) SBS advises that the schedules were last changed in 1993 at the expansion of services to second frequencies in Sydney and Melbourne and the addition of the National Radio Network. The review was undertaken by SBS Radio, with the Head of Radio making recommendations through the SBS Executive to the Board for approval.

(3) SBS advises that:

(a) For reasons of equity, the availability of other media cannot be a primary determinant in allocating airtime. This matter was raised and discussed at various community consultations around Australia (see 10 (a) below). No newspaper, community radio station or commercial language broadcaster serves the same purposes in the same way as SBS Radio, in providing core news and information services to people who speak a language other than English (LOTE).

(b) Because of resource limitations and the economic realities of public broadcasting, SBS Radio has been forced to focus increasingly on serving the socio-economic needs of LOTE speakers, especially in the provision of news and information services. The maintenance of cultures and language perforce take a lesser priority.

(c) and (d) SBS Radio is a language-based broadcaster and does not broadcast to religious or ethno-religious communities per se.

(4) (a) to (c) SBS advises that, since 1993, SBS Radio has had three weekly programs in Hebrew and three in Yiddish. There have been no specifically English language Jewish community programs, though both the Hebrew and Yiddish language programs have included segments in English to assist in cross-listening, especially for younger listeners who may not be fluent in either language.

(5) SBS advises that no Jewish community programs have been cut, as none exist. However, there has been a reduction of one hour each per week for the Hebrew and Yiddish language programs. The reductions in hours were made (a) to allow the introduction of language programs for needy new and emerging communities such as Somali, Malay, Amharic and Nepalese and (b) to correct significant inequities viz. other language communities.

(6) The old program schedules were:

The new program schedules are:

CANTONESE (POPULATION 225,307) IS NOW SCHEDULED AT 2PM ON FRIDAYS AND

Norwegian at 3pm. The weekly Norwegian program (serving 2,858 speakers with only one hour per week) has been moved from its former Monday morning spot to make way for the Mandarin language program (pop.139,286).

(7) (a) Yes.

(b) SBS advises that the community expressed no preference for losing any programs. Of the three scheduled weekly programs (Wednesday, Friday and Sunday), relevant SBS Radio program staff said the Friday program would be the best to discontinue in that it allowed coverage by the two remaining programs to be spread more evenly over the week. SBS Radio endorsed this view. Had either the Wednesday or Sunday programs been discontinued there would have been a 5:2 day period between the remaining programs, which would not best serve the interests of Hebrew or Yiddish listeners.

(c) SBS advises that there are no audience figures to show which program is most popular.

(8) SBS advises that, as well as the new and emerging communities that have been added to the SBS Radio schedules (Somali, Malay, Amharic and Nepalese), language communities that were previously most seriously under-represented and have now received an additional hour on both Sydney and Melbourne networks are: Cantonese, Mandarin, Hindi and Filipino. Arabic has received an additional hour in Melbourne only.

(9) Matters relating to the 2001 Census are the responsibility of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer. SBS advises that, as SBS Radio has a finite number of airtime hours to allocate, it does so proportionately across language communities, so percentage decreases or increases within language communities are not in themselves the deciding factor. More significant is the fact that much larger language communities such as Thai (17,344) and Tongan (10,587) had fewer than three hours each per week. Yiddish is the ninth smallest language on SBS Radio's schedules, yet even with two hours per week it has a greater allocation than 33 other languages.

(10) SBS advises that:

(a) during SBS Radio's nationwide consultation, it was agreed at mass meetings of community representatives in all state and territory capitals that the factor of other language media should not be added to the existing five criteria for calculating need, which are language community size, lack of fluency in English, recency of arrival, age over 55 and unemployment rates. It was generally felt by representatives that fairness and equity would not be served by either including or excluding communities because of the availability of other media in their language. One such view was that small and needy communities should not be penalised where they had managed by their own efforts to produce a newsletter or a community radio program. Also, as explained in 3a. above, SBS Radio plays a different role than other media..

(b) as explained in part 3 (a) above, SBS Radio's primary function in 2003 with finite resources is to serve the socio-economic needs of Australians who speak a language other than English. It has never been SBS Radio's role to protect endangered languages as an aim in itself. There are many languages in danger of extinction - especially Aboriginal languages - that SBS Radio is similarly unable to protect.

(11) (a) The Minister has received no correspondence on this matter. SBS advises thatSBS was fully aware of the arguments of alleged under-reporting of many languages, including Yiddish. In fact, most language communities can advance plausible reasons why their particular language was under-reported. Yiddish is by no means alone in seeing itself as a `stateless' or minority language; others which have been at some stage in their history include Macedonian, Aboriginal, Tamil, Assyrian, Armenian, Bosnian, Maori, Gujarati, Slovenian, Kurdish, Kannada, Irish Gaelic, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh. Question 15 of the Census gave individuals the choice of nominating which is their first language other than English. In allocating airtime, SBS must rely on the choices individuals make as to which language other than English they nominated.

(b) SBS advises that the 2001 Census was able to identify and count individuals who said they spoke one language within a household which spoke another or other languages. If an individual could speak only Yiddish or mainly Yiddish, it is reasonable to assume that in most cases they were identified as Yiddish speakers. This too happens across all language communities.

(12) Matters relating to the 2001 Census are the responsibility of the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer. As explained by SBS in part (9) above, airtime is allocated not on population changes within language communities, but comparative populations in the 2001 Census. While the number of Hebrew speakers increased by 35 between 1996 and 2001, the total population of the communities broadcast on SBS Radio increased by 209,000.

(13) As explained in part (10a) above, the availability of other media was not a primary consideration in the allocation of airtime to the Hebrew speaking community.

(14) SBS Radio revenue comprises $32.755m from appropriations and $1.362m from Radio Advertising.

(15) SBS advises that:

(a) Government agencies do use SBS Radio to communicate with people from non-English speaking backgrounds. Universal McCaan, the Federal Government's master media agency, has negotiated a Federal Government rate card. The rate card is extended to all Federal Government agencies. In addition, SBS Radio has a contract with Centrelink, which was won by tender to produce community information segments to be aired on SBS as free community service announcements. The payment which SBS Radio receives is for the production component of $500 plus GST per language.

(b) Advertising is bought in spots of 30, 45 or 60 seconds.

(c) Federal Government agencies have advertised in the following languages on SBS Radio: Aboriginal, Arabic, Albanian, Assyrian, Bosnian, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Dari, Pashto, Dutch, Estonian, Filipino, German, Greek, Italian, Khmer, Korean, Kurdish, Laotian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Macedonian, Maltese, Mandarin, Persian/Farsi, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese. Advertisements in Amharic, Somali and Tigrinya have been broadcast in the African Hour.

(d) Advertising rates, as per the Federal Government rate card for national spots are: 30 seconds - $126 plus GST per spot; 45 seconds - $185 plus GST per spot; 60 seconds - $220 plus GST per spot. These rates are uniform across language programs.

(16) No.

(17) SBS advises there has been no paid advertising for the Hebrew or Yiddish language programs in the current financial year. SBS Radio Advertising Guidelines (21 August 1997) '...affirm the need to maintain a clear distinction between its advertising and sponsorship activities and the editorial independence of its programming' (page 3).

(18) SBS advises that the Friday 3pm slot will be filled by moving the Norwegian language program. During this financial year, the program has not received advertising.