Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Media Reform) Bill 2016

The majority voted against amendments introduced by Labor MP Michelle Rowland, which means they were unsuccessful.

The amendments would have deleted schedule 2 from the bill, which would have gotten rid of:

the two out of three cross-media control rule which ... prohibits a person controlling more than two out of three regulated media platforms (that is, a commercial television broadcasting licence, a commercial radio broadcasting licence and an associated newspaper) in any one commercial radio licence area.

What does this bill do?

The bill will get rid of certain media ownership, control and diversity laws, like the ‘75% audience reach rule’, which stops commercial television broadcasting licensees from controlling licences if the combined licence area has a population over 75% of Australia' population. It also gets rid of the ‘2 out of 3 cross-media control rule’, which "prohibits control over more than two out of three regulated media platforms in any one commercial radio licence area".

Read more in the bills digest.

Amendment text

(1) Clause 2, page 2 (table item 2, column 1), omit “Schedules 1 and 2”, substitute “Schedule 1”.

(2) Schedule 2, page 4 (line 1) to page 5 (line 14), omit the Schedule.