Senator LEES (9:36 AM) —When we finished at 11 o'clock last night I was in the process of explaining what the amendment I moved does, and I will go over again why I am moving it. It follows directly on from the minister's previous amendment to guarantee that local news services are available across rural and regional Australia. Indeed, as we heard from Senator McLucas, in some places that will mean restoring news services. This amendment extends that requirement into the smaller capital cities, which seem to have fallen through the gap. Obviously Melbourne and Sydney are very well served by all the commercial stations, but already in Perth and Adelaide—in my home state of South Australia—the news stories are being collected in their home states and sent over to Melbourne, where they are packaged. The presenters now live there; they and their furniture have been packed up and sent to Melbourne. They then put the news together and send it back to Adelaide, where it is broadcast.

The problem is basically that if costs become an issue we could well see the plug pulled, literally, and all that would remain in Adelaide would be perhaps an outside broadcast van, a couple of news people and a couple of camera people. That would effectively be the end of our local news service. So the reason for moving this amendment is to make sure that the smaller capitals—and here I am highlighting Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane—have local news services: services that are generated locally and that have local camera crews and local reporters. I do not think it really matters where they are put together, given the cost now of the new technology and a digital desk—very many millions of dollars—but the fact that they are collected locally is essential. I recommend this amendment to the Senate.