Ms GEORGE (9:49 AM) —While Australian viewers are enjoying watching the Ashes test cricket series on free-to-air television, and particularly the great result at the Gabba, English fans will not be so fortunate. Audiences in the UK are having to pay to watch their team and will only be able to see a delayed highlights package the following night on free-to-air on the BBC. In Australia we can thank a former Labor government for this situation, as back in 1992 they introduced anti-siphoning laws designed specifically to prevent certain sporting events from being siphoned off to pay TV. The current anti-siphoning list encompasses 10 sports, including the popular ones—football, cricket, tennis, golf—plus the Olympic and Commonwealth Games. It is a list of major sporting events that the Australian parliament has determined must be available for all Australians to see free of charge.

The Howard government is proposing to introduce a use-it-or-lose-it rule for sports on this list to, as they say, ensure that broadcasters are showing the events they acquire and that listed sports are not being hoarded—and neither should they be. On the surface this seems a reasonable enough proposition, provided of course the criteria operate fairly and consideration is given to the impact on viewers if an event is taken off the list. As I understand it, there will be quite an amount of ministerial discretion about what stays and what comes off.

A use-it-or-lose-it scheme should not result in less free sport being available to viewers, so any scheme would need to consider the impact of delisting events on the viewing population. It should also look at the rights broadcasters acquire and whether unused events are available to or purchased by pay TV. The use-it-or-lose-it mechanism should not result in free coverage of sporting events being replaced by pay coverage, for this would have a very serious impact particularly on low-income households, many of whom I represent in the electorate of Throsby. Considering that the cheapest package on pay TV is around the $600 a year mark and the average, I am told, is about $1,000 a year, this would make the cost very prohibitive and deny many people access to freely available free-to-air sports coverage.

Australian sports fans—and we are a great sporting nation—take it for granted that they will always be able to see their favourite sporting events on free-to-air TV. They ought to be alerted to the possibility of this new use-it-or-lose-it rule taking some of those well-covered sports off free-to-air TV and siphoning them off to pay TV. It is up to the Howard government to make sure that this does not happen. (Time expired)