Senator BOURNE (10:18 AM) —Yes. I want to make a few general remarks. I will keep them reasonably short. I must say that I have been very concerned about the passage of this legislation, not because I do not think it is inevitable that we will go to digital—I do—but because it is probably sensible to know under what conditions, and that has been the problem. We have not known exactly what conditions we could be going to with digital. So much in this legislation is left to review and to delegated legislation.

In fact, I had intended to move an amendment to the original package that the ALP was going to move to ensure that the start-up date of digital could not commence until the very complicated aspects of digital high definition broadcast, enhanced broadcast, multi-channelling, datacasting and all of that was dealt with by legislation and enshrined in legislation, not just in regulation. As a last resort, as I am sure everybody knows because they have seen it on the Notice Paper, I was going to move a motion to send off to a Senate committee everything that had not been resolved in the whole process of digital.

The outcome that we have come to today does not fill me with as much dread as it does Senator Margetts. What it does—I hope this is the case; I have looked at it very carefully and I cannot see that it is anything else—is, in effect, give us something like an 18-month exposure draft on this legislation. I am very pleased with the outcome that both houses of parliament will have to vote on the proclamation date. In the end that gives us 18 months to discuss all of this, to discuss everything that is in this legislation, particularly section 4 about standards. It gives us the time, and it gives the whole community in Australia the time, to work out what is going on in the changeover to digital. That is something that was not in the original legislation. That was the thing I feared most about it.

I do still fear the impact of having regulations for standards, which are incredibly important. I believe they should be in legislation, but we do have the safety net of not voting for proclamation until the regulations are right. What will happen now is that, in 18 months, when this comes back before the parliament, both houses will be able to see exactly what is in those regulations. If what is in those regulations is not a reasonable outcome according to both houses, then one house will not pass those regulations until there is a reasonable outcome. I know there will be considerable pressure. There is considerable pressure now, but I think we are all big enough and nasty enough to be able to withstand that sort of pressure until we get it right. I hope that is the case.

I have already talked in my speech on the second reading debate about what our basis of understanding on digital is, so I will not go through that again. I am still worried about the fast-tracking, but I am much happier about the changes to the proclamation date. I congratulate the minister for that. I understand it was his office or the department that came up with that. I think that is excellent.

I ask the minister when he believes the reviews will start. I am sure he will answer that some time during the course of the committee debate. I am concerned, as I am sure we all are—I know the government is—that the parliament can reach agreement which will provide the least possible disruption to the viewing public. I am pleased to see that the government has said that they have the same objective.

The debate will be very interesting over the next 18 months. It will be very interesting once the reviews begin, as long as they are open and people are able to have input. I would like to ask the minister whether he believes there will be public input; I hope so. I think we have to take a lot of notice, too, of the monetary cost to the public of having to buy new equipment. We all know what the estimations are of the cost of the new sets and the black boxes. I do not know about anybody listening, but I do not have $1,500 at the moment that I could use on a black box to change my TV over, but I am going to need it sooner or later. I suppose the minister has the same crystal ball I have, but I would be interested in his views on the costs of changing to digitisation.

As I said, I believe this is an exposure draft. I think it will work like that. I hope that having faith in the two major parties is not misplaced in that they are not going to do something horrible in 18 months. I believe they will not. I believe we now will have so much public debate—obviously there is debate going on now—on what people want, what is in section 4 in relation to standards, what are reasonable standards, including standards on captioning and a lot of other things. I hope that in 18 months—in fact, I confidently expect, which is perhaps going a little too far—we will have something that will work.

The minister mentioned NTN regulations on 322 coming before my amendments on the national broadcasters and Australian content. I do have a couple of amendments at the end of my amendment sheet on NTN regulations. I take it I should move those at the same time the minister moves his. Would that be correct?

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN (Senator Ferguson) —That is for the committee to decide, Senator Bourne. I do not have any objections to that. You will decide as a committee. They are the amendments at the end of sheet 1062?

Senator Bourne —Yes.

The TEMPORARY CHAIRMAN —I think we will look at that as we come to it, Senator Bourne. By then we might have the running sheet in order.