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Rebate conditions coming

Senator Conroy's office has confirmed there will be conditions attached to the $250m network rebate.

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And here are the latest developments in the Rebate issue:

Yesterday, Senator Conroy’s office told The Australian there would be conditions attached, saying the rebate was about protecting local content so “it follows that the rebate is conditional upon broadcasters meeting Australian content standards. As with any tax rebate, this rebate will need to be implemented via a change to regulations.”

Conroy confirmed the government would introduce regulations denying a licence fee rebate to any networks breaching their local content obligations. Recent ACMA data from 2008 showed the three networks has exceeded the 55% local content quota. Seven had more than 64 per cent, while Nine was at 61 per cent and TEN at 56.4 per cent.

AAP notes that Conroy also says people have forgotten the free-to-air channels faced many challenges and the cut was recognition of that.

“There is a long-term structural decline in free-to-air broadcasting all around the world,” he told ABC Television on Thursday.

“With the advent of the internet and as part of the government’s National Broadband Network plans, there is going to be massive competition coming into the media over the next few years.”

The Sydney Morning Herald learns that James Packer was the businessman playing golf with Senator Conroy two Sundays ago, the day the government issued a press release announcing the rebate.

The men were playing at the exclusive Capital Golf Club, the private club owned by the multimillionaire Lloyd Williams.

Meanwhile Tony Abbott answered criticism that his comments had question journlistic integrity: ”The last thing I would ever do is accuse professional journalists of being bribable but certainly this is a government which is always looking for favours.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian,

8 Responses

  1. I really hope Conroy goes sooner than later, as he’s been at the heart of so many scandalous decisions lately. The NBN is maybe the biggest laugh (worry) of all. How many billions to provide a faster internet which they then want to slow down 30 – 76% with their secret filters? Shame on the ALP, not that the Libs would be any better.

  2. It sounds as if the “conditions” are that they comply with the content rules….except that compliance was always a requirement anyway!

    He can’t claim continuing to meet current content rules is somehow a “condition”.

    This was just a big fat bribe to get favour and to smother criticism in an election year, nothing less.

  3. “With the advent of the internet and as part of the government’s National Broadband Network plans, there is going to be massive competition coming into the media over the next few years.”

    So radio stations, newspapers, cinemas and video stores should also look forward to a cash windfall? They are going to be copping extra competition as well from new technologies and the rollout of the NBN

    And funny how it’s only commercial TV networks that get the rebate. ABC and SBS presumably are also going to be hit by “massive competition coming into the media”. Do they get more money too?

    But I guess the community TV sector wouldn’t ever enter the government’s mind.

  4. And Gillard was on Nein this morning claiming the $250m rebate was due to the cost of restructuring the digital spectrum and new players coming into broadcasting – that’s news to us all. We have a new FTA broadcaster do we?
    And “massive competition…[from] the government’s National Broadband Network” – puh-lease – that’s a decade away. This rebate will have lost tax payers upwards of $3b by the time the NBN comes online!
    Then in the next breathe Labour’s claiming they have to cut the private health rebate for a bunch of people coz they have a $1b budget blackhole otherwise. Throwing away cash with one hand and grabbing it with the other. This mob are seriously looking like one-termers.

  5. Conroy should be sacked by Rudd from his job for his regular incompetence and it’s surprising he hasn’t been already. If Rudd wins the election at the end of the year, my guess is he’ll be moved to another portfolio, if Rudd doesn’t want to dump him.

  6. Policy-on-the-run is never a good idea, but if they enforced 55% on the digital channels then you could make a case. Not for $250 million though. It’d be worth $25 million p.a..

  7. So they hand it out unconditionally, everyone says this is dodgy, so Conmanroy says of well make some conditions up! This mob stink so much you can smell them a mile away!

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