- Home
- Parliamentary Business
- Senators and Members
- News & Events
- About Parliament
- Visit Parliament
Permalink
Prev
Next
Return to results list (1 results)




- Title
TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
In Committee
- Database
Senate Hansard
- Date
16-12-1992
- Source
Senate
- Parl No.
36
- Electorate
NT
- Interjector
The CHAIRMAN
Senator Walters
- Page
5223
- Party
ALP
- Presenter
- Status
- Question No.
- Questioner
- Responder
- Speaker
Senator COLLINS
- Stage
- Type
- Context
Bill
- System Id
chamber/hansards/1992-12-16/0144
Note: Where available, the PDF/Word icon below is provided to view the complete and fully formatted document
Table Of Contents

Previous Fragment Next Fragment
-
Hansard
- Start of Business
-
PETITIONS
- Australian Research Fellowship
- Constitutional Monarchy
- Bender's Quarry
- ABC: Asia
- Oath/Affirmation of Allegiance
- Trade Practices Act
- Regulation of Video Material Bill 1992
- Veterans' Entitlement Amendment Bill 1992
- Procedural Text
-
NOTICES OF MOTION
-
Hours of Meeting and Routine of Business
- Withdrawal
- Australian Broadcasting Corporation Amendment Bill 1992
- Crimes (Search Warrants and Powers of Arrest) Amendment Bill 1992
- Telecommunications (Interception) Amendment Bill 1992
- Administrative Appeals Tribunal Amendment Bill 1992
- Railways Strike
- Legal Aid
- Burma
- Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
- Legal Aid
- Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- Unemployment: Graduates
- Iraq
- Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- Tully-Millstream Hydro-electric Scheme
-
General Business
- Withdrawal
-
Hours of Meeting and Routine of Business
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
-
COMMITTEES
- Standing Committee on Finance and Public Administration
- TABLING OF DOCUMENTS
- REGISTERED PUBLICATIONS SERVICE
-
COMMITTEES
- Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
- Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
-
Standing Committee on Employment, Education and Training
- Report
- Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology
-
TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
-
In Committee
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator PARER
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator PARER
- Senator BOURNE
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator ALSTON
- Senator ALSTON
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator BOURNE
- Senator HARRADINE
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator HARRADINE, Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
- Senator WALTERS
- Senator COLLINS
-
In Committee
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
- HEALTH AND COMMUNITY SERVICES LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992 HOUSING ASSISTANCE AMENDMENT BILL 1992
-
AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL TRAINING AUTHORITY BILL 1992
- In Committee
- Third Reading
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
- IMPORTED FOOD CONTROL BILL 1992
-
QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
-
Economy
(Senator SHORT, Senator BUTTON) -
Manufacturing
(Senator DEVEREUX, Senator BUTTON) -
Victoria: Borrowings
(Senator ALSTON, Senator BUTTON) -
Industrial Relations
(Senator FOREMAN, Senator COOK) -
Nuclear Reactors
(Senator SOWADA, Senator BUTTON) -
Mobile Telecommunications Services
(Senator SCHACHT, Senator COLLINS) -
Prime Minister: Companies
(Senator MICHAEL BAUME, Senator TATE) -
Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Industries
(Senator LOOSLEY, Senator BUTTON) -
Ambassador to the OECD
(Senator BISHOP, Senator GARETH EVANS) -
Telecom Australia
(Senator SPINDLER, Senator COLLINS) -
Pigs
(Senator O'CHEE, Senator GARETH EVANS) -
Hospitals: Veterans
(Senator WEST, Senator TATE)
-
Economy
- DISTINGUISHED VISITORS
- QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
-
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- Film Industry
- Ambassador to the OECD
- Independent Contractors
- Prime Minister: Companies
-
MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS
- Australian Advanced Air Traffic System
-
COMMITTEES
-
Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- Report
-
Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
- Report: Government Response
- Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
-
Standing Committee on Environment, Recreation and the Arts
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
-
DOCUMENTS Department of the Parliamentary Reporting Staff Department of the Parliamentary Library
- Auditor-General's Reports
-
COMMITTEES
-
Scrutiny of Bills
- Report
- Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade
-
Public Works
- Reports
-
Scrutiny of Bills
- JOINT HOUSE DEPARTMENT: PUBLIC LIABILITY CLAIM
- ORDER OF BUSINESS
-
COMMITTEES
-
Public Works
- Reports
-
Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances
- Scrutiny of Regulations
-
Public Works
- TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
- DATA-MATCHING PROGRAM (ASSISTANCE AND TAX) AMENDMENT BILL 1992 VETERANS' AFFAIRS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 VETERANS' ENTITLEMENTS AMENDMENT BILL 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
- ADJOURNMENT
- DATA-MATCHING PROGRAM (ASSISTANCE AND TAX) AMENDMENT BILL 1992 VETERANS' AFFAIRS LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 VETERANS' ENTITLEMENTS AMENDMENT BILL 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 2) 1992 SOCIAL SECURITY LEGISLATION AMENDMENT BILL (No. 3) 1992
-
ADJOURNMENT
- Primary Production
- DOCUMENTS
-
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
-
Taxation: Imputation Credit Scheme
(Senator Maguire, Senator Button) -
Taxation: Dividend Imputation Credits
(Senator Watson, Senator Button) -
Currency and Coinage
(Senator Watson, Senator Button) -
Treasury: Staff
(Senator Archer, Senator Button) -
Aboriginal Medical Service
(Senator Campbell, Senator Collins) -
Information Technology
(Senator Parer, Senator Button) -
Wet Tropics Management Authority: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority
(Senator O'Chee, Senator Collins) -
Superannuation
(Senator Watson, Senator Button) -
Immigration: Return of Chinese Citizens
(Senator O'Chee, Senator Tate) -
ACT AIDS Action Council
(Senator Reid, Senator Button) -
Navy: Vessel Repairs
(Senator O'Chee, Senator Robert Ray)
-
Taxation: Imputation Credit Scheme
Content Window
Wednesday, 16 December 1992
Page: 5223
Page: 5223
Senator COLLINS (Minister for Transport and Communications) (6.20 p.m.)
—The reason we have not moved that way—I do not have the Hansard quote from Senator Walters here in front of me—is that which Senator Walters stated in a previous debate in terms of action the Opposition has taken in respect of ABC and SBS. Her assertion that the ABC and SBS would be anxious to fall in line with these codes has in fact proved to be the case; she was correct. I apologise to Senator Harradine, I actually thought we had finished the debate, and I do not have that quote in front of me. But I do agree with Senator Walters on that. The ABC and the SBS have developed codes of practice. The ABC's code of practice in fact has been formalised; it actually has received the formal approval of the board.
Senator Walters
—We have not seen it.
Senator COLLINS
—No, but it is coming; it is subject to the same purview as everything else is. Senator Walters has not seen the commercial codes of practice either. I am sorry, the ABC one has been circulated; Senator Alston probably has it. I am assured that in fact the ABC code of practice, because it has been formally approved by the board and it is an official document, has been given to the Opposition. I know that the SBS has developed a draft code already. That has not been formalised yet by its board, but I am advised it will be considered by the board on 19 December.
Both the ABC and the SBS have special charter obligations to inform and educate as well as to entertain. From previous discussions I have had with Senator Alston, I know he agrees with those sentiments. While they are not exempt from observing community standards of taste and decency, they are required to produce programming that is innovative, that reflects the cultural diversity of the Australian community and which represents many points of view. For this reason, the ABC and SBS in particular—and I think it does a superb job of this, because of its multicultural broadcasting obligations—do find it difficult to apply uniform industry-wide sets of standards and more culturally diverse and innovative programming than they provide. And they do provide it, especially the SBS, which I have described on previous occasions as perhaps almost a niche service. It is a very specialised service that commercial television simply does not provide.
The ABC and SBS are both protected by enabling legislation and by convention from direct interference in programming decisions. The editorial and programming independence of the national broadcasters, which are dependent on Government funding, as an important principle must be preserved. ABC and SBS programming does not rely to the same extent as the commercial media on films which portray high levels of violence. The SBS in particular has a longstanding policy—I know this as an assiduous watcher of SBS—of classifying some adult material for screening only after 9.30 or 10.30 p.m. In fact, as watchers of SBS would know, some of the excellent movies that the SBS broadcasts are broadcast even later than that. ABC and SBS programming does not rely to the same extent, as I have said, on that kind of blockbuster late release movie that commercial television does.
It has been put to me—and I have accepted it—that if the ABC and the SBS were constrained to broadcasting the same sorts of programs in exactly the same way as the commercial broadcasters there would be a greatly reduced justification for their continued existence in providing the very valuable services that they do. Senator Alston—and I think I am free to say this in terms of the discussions I have had with him on this—is largely in agreement with those sentiments.