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Govt withdraws media reform bills

The government will withdraw the remaining 4 media reform bills.

2013-03-21_1237The Federal Government will withdraw the remaining four media reform bills from parliament.

The government made the move after attempting to reach a compromise with the Greens and some independents that could have seen the changes pass the parliament by a single vote.

The government’s last hope was to engineer a tie on the floor of the lower house that would give the Labor speaker, Anna Burke, a chance to wield a casting vote in favour of the reforms.

But Rob Oakeshott indicated he would vote against the bills if the government forced them to a vote on Thursday rather than give ground and offer more time for detailed consideration.

“This is getting absurd. My message to government would be ‘stop already’,” he told Sky News.

“Let’s take some deep breaths and if we really do want good policy in media laws in this country, time is a friend not an enemy.”

Earlier, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said he was standing firm on Labor’s timeframe on its media bills despite independent MP Rob Oakeshott calling for an extra five weeks to consider them.

“If we don’t get the support we will move on,” Senator Conroy said.

“Either you support diversity of the media or you don’t.”

Labor has not lost a parliamentary vote on any key government legislation since the 2010 federal election.

Julia Gillard is yet to confirm, however, whether the changes will remain Labor policy as it heads to the election in September.

Meanwhile Simon Crean is now openly calling for a Labor leadership spill. “I look forward to caucus making a mature decision….I will be supporting Kevin Rudd. He has got no option but to run. I want no more games.”

Statement from Kerry Stokes, Chairman, Seven West Media, on Media Reform Proposals:
Seven West Media is pleased that the four remaining bills in the Government’s media package will not be proceeding. We had expressed reservations about both the content of these bills and in particular the process. Media policy is vital to the democratic health of our country. We are always ready to consider and debate proposals for improvement in this important area.

Source: news.com.au, Fairfax, SKY News, The Australian

11 Responses

  1. Looks like Conroy finally found a group (media barons) he couldn’t force to wear red underwear on their collective heads.

    As others have noted, I believe Australia is heading right and that’s not a bad thing per se. Roll on September.

  2. Newspapers or news shows do have to aim for a higher standard … esp if they claim to be fair and balanced … I personally wouldn’t watch Fox News or read the “Green-Left” weekly.

  3. Newspapers don’t have to be unbiased. The a free commercial businesses. What would be the point of an objective Green-Left Weekly?

    And it doesn’t matter because people will just read the media that confirms their own biases anyway.

    The whole Finklestein/Levenson agenda has been to use dodgie and subjective definitions of quality and prejude to control what views people can read.

  4. I think we are heading to the right. It seems to me that many people are highly critical of Gillard and the labour party; which was not the case before the election in 2007.

  5. As an observer, I have to say that certain newspapers are just totally biased against certain parties (in this case – the government). But the handling of these reforms were rushed.

    Also, can someone tell me if this country is left leaning or right? It certainly looks we are heading to the right as in the US.

  6. I really don’t understand the Labor Party sometimes. They blame everyone for their woes when they are their worst enemy. This crash or crash through approach was never going to work. Just because they get bad press, they decide to try and limit, or worse, censor selected material. Good riddance to an ill-conceived policy.

  7. Sen Conroy should be sacked. What a truly dreadful way to approach reform.

    This will probably cost the PM her job, not a good day. I wanted Julia Gillard to continue as PM as this would have lead to a crushing defeat for the ALP in Sept…..

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