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Abbott says $250m Rebate looks dodgy

Opposition leader Tony Abbott has branded the $250m rebate to commercial Free to Air networks "an election year bribe."

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Opposition leader Tony Abbott has branded the $250m rebate to commercial Free to Air networks “an election year bribe.”

During an interview on DMG Radio in Adelaide today he said, “It looks pretty dodgy to me.

“It looks like at this stage, unless the government can justify much better than it has so far, you’ve got to say that it looks like an election year bribe.

“Maybe there is more to this which the government hasn’t told us about but at the moment it doesn’t look good. It looks like they’re buying favourable coverage.”

The rebate is a 30% reduction on license fees this year and 50% next year.

So far Shadow Minister for Communications Tony Smith is yet to issue any Press Release over the issue, which has been widely criticised by media for not including any new conditions on local content.

On the weekend it emerged that Senator Conroy met with Seven chairman Kerry Stokes in January in Colorado.

The radio industry is now keen to see a rebate matched for its license fees while the Pay TV sector says taxpayers are footing the bill to prop up an outdated business model.

But Free TV Australia says it is facing the expense of major structural changes, fractioning audiences, declining revenues, competition from Pay TV, internet, and the upcoming loss of spectrum expected to be sold to Telcos for additional audio visual content.

Source: AAP / Sydney Morning Herald

22 Responses

  3. Michael, only if one doesn’t vote below the line in the Senate. Voting below the line means that the preferences will be allocated exactly as intended, and any preference deals will not come into play with that particular vote.

  4. “””I also know that it is about time the 2 big parties got a bit of a shafting so they actually start listening to the people . . .”””

    I’m sure ‘the people’ are hanging out for a fast food tax, the legalization of heroin, a laissez faire immigration system, and the opportunity to pay ninety cents in the dollar income tax.

  7. ummmm Michael, yes I do know that.

    I also know that it is about time the 2 big parties got a bit of a shafting so they actually start listening to the people and not just their cashed up mates and right wing ‘family’ groups.

  8. I urge everyone to look at the Greens this election, maybe then Australia can move forward into the 2000’s instead of trying to be dragged back to the 1950’s by these insidious ‘moral’ men.

    While other politicians steal, only Bob Brown lowers himself to begging rather than use his own money to meet his commitments.

    What about all the extra revenue the networks have been getting from exceeding their quota of commercials?

    License fee or quota!

  10. I’m sure if Tony Abbott got in as Prime Minister he’d make sure any and every Gay or Lesbian show would be banned or labelled indecent and get it bumped to the graveyard shift.

    I shall move to NZ if that happens 😛

  12. Please, Michael (1:49pm)!

    I’d much rather stick with the “outdated business models,” otherwise known as Broadcast Television than your idea of entertainment – some random watching their cat fall asleep on YouTube.

    This site is called ‘TV Tonight.’ If you don’t like what TV has to offer, than why are you here?

  15. Both parties are as dodgy as each other at the moment and you would have to be pretty darn stubborn not to admit that.

    I urge everyone to look at the Greens this election, maybe then Australia can move forward into the 2000’s instead of trying to be dragged back to the 1950’s by these insidious ‘moral’ men.

  16. Conroy needs to go.
    He cost us $17 billion for his first attempt at a national broadband network, committed who knows how much for the NBN based on the back of an envelope calculation, gave the nod to a former Qld Labor minister to be employed by NBN Co, wants to censor the internet and now gives away $250 billion of taxpayers money.

    KevUN Rudd stays with Stokes in Broome, Conry skis with him, Wayne Goss the former Qld premier is the cheif exec of the Commercial TV group. All smells a bit fishy to me.

    Wake up KRudd, you are aleep at the wheel again.

    Where is the justification for this gift to the commercial networks? What do they have to do for the gift – go easy on Labor in an election year? When was it approved in a budget. And Labor reckons they are good financial managers!!

    God help us, the election can’t come soon enough so we can kick these crooks out.

  17. “But Free TV Australia says it is facing the expense of major structural changes, fractioning audiences, declining revenues, competition from Pay TV, internet, and the upcoming loss of spectrum expected to be sold to Telcos for additional audio visual content.”

    Awww. Let me get out my tiny violin and play a sad song.

  18. And Seven retracts the Rann story shortly after several cosy rendezvous – Broome, Vail. Coincidence? I don’t think so. I really does smell like a fish. With a little political savvy it could have been sold as a win win for the independent production sector. Who is advising these people? Anyone with a few brains make yourself known to Conroy.

  22. Nice call, Tony. The rebate does look very dodgy. Conroy has made so many blunders, so many bad decisions, and continues to demonstrate a level of ignorance at odds with the position he holds, that he needs to go. It is obvious that everything he does is to feather his own nest, to buddy up with special interest groups, and to ‘acquire’ political allies. He seems to care very little about how he uses the money of the Australian people, as long as it benefits his own personal agenda. He certainly can’t be trusted with the oversight of a mandatory Australia-wide secret Internet censorship system. If Rudd won’t sack him, the voters will have to rid the country of his incompetence.

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