Russell Broadbent voted very strongly against increasing the diversity of media ownership
How Russell Broadbent voted compared to someone who believes that the federal government should use regulation to increase the diversity of publishers and broadcasters in Australia's media industry by, for example, setting a threshold for the maximum market share of any one company.
Russell Broadbent
Supporters vote
Division outcome
21st Jun 2017, 11:21 AM – Representatives Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Broadcasting Reform) Bill 2017, Commercial Broadcasting (Tax) Bill 2017 - Third Reading - Pass the bills
The majority voted in favour of passing the bills. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read them for a third time. This means that the bills will now go to the Senate, where they can decide whether to also pass them so they can become law.
What do the bills do?
The bills are part of an "historic package of reforms" that the Government announced earlier this year that affect free-to-air broadcasting in Australia.
Most controversially, the bills will repeal the '2 out of 3 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.
Read more in the explanatory memorandum.
Yes No (strong) Passed by a small majority
21st Jun 2017, 11:11 AM – Representatives Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Broadcasting Reform) Bill 2017, Commercial Broadcasting (Tax) Bill 2017 - Consideration in Detail - 2 out of 3 cross-media control rule
The majority voted against an amendment introduced by Australian Labor MP Michelle Rowland (Greenway), which means the amendment failed.
What did the amendment do?
This bill proposes to repeal the '2 out of 3 cross-media control rule', which:
This amendment would have removed that part of the bill so that the 2 out of 3 cross-media control rule remains unchanged.
No Yes (strong) Not passed by a small majority
21st Jun 2017, 10:57 AM – Representatives Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Broadcasting Reform) Bill 2017, Commercial Broadcasting (Tax) Bill 2017 - Second Reading - Agree to bills' main idea
The majority voted in favour of the bills' main idea. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read them for a second time. This means that they can now discuss the bills in more detail.
What is the bills' main idea?
30th Nov 2016, 5:48 PM – Representatives Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Media Reform) Bill 2016 - Consideration in Detail - Cross-media control rule
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.
(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.
30th Nov 2016, 4:58 PM – Representatives Broadcasting Legislation Amendment (Media Reform) Bill 2016 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea
The majority agreed with the main idea of the bill, which means they can now discuss it in more detail. In parliamentary jargon, they voted to read the bill for a second time.
What is the bill's main idea?
18th Oct 2006, 12:09 PM – Representatives Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 - Third Reading - Pass the bill
The majority agreed to pass the bill (in parliamentary jargon, they agreed to read the bill for a third time). Since the bill has already been passed in the Senate, it will now become law.
Main idea of the bill
The bill will introduce new laws relating to cross media ownership and foreign media ownership. Specifically, it will permit cross-media mergers in radio licence areas where sufficient diversity of media groups remains following the merger and remove media-specific restrictions on foreign ownership and control.
The bill states that there is sufficient diversity of media groups if there are at least five separate media groups in mainland State capitals and at least four groups in other licence areas following any merger activity.
What are cross media ownership laws?
Under the current law, a person can't control two types of media (including TV, radio and newspaper media) within the same licence area. For example, one person can't control a commercial television broadcasting licence and a commercial radio broadcasting licence within a particular area. Nor can they control a commercial radio broadcasting licence and a newspaper associated with the area.
A person is considered to be in control of the particular type of media if they have interests in the company greater than 15%.
What are foreign media ownership laws?
There are currently several controls on foreign ownership of Australian media. For example, there are strict limits on the degree of total foreign interest in newspaper ownership as well as a set limit on the interest of any single foreign shareholder.
Background to the bill
Since it was elected in 1996, the Coalition Government has made its interest in amending Australia's media ownership laws clear. It has asked the advice of the Productivity Commission and previously introduced the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2002 and the Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2002 (No 2), but neither were passed.
The Government restated its commitment to amend these media ownership laws during the 2004 election, in which it was re-elected.
Read more about the background to the bill in its bills digest.
18th Oct 2006, 12:02 PM – Representatives Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 - Consideration in Detail - Remove new cross-media ownership laws from bill
The majority disagreed that the new cross-media ownership laws should be removed from the bill. Labor MP Stephen Smith had suggested this in a motion because he believes that the new laws contained in the bill don't protect media diversity (read his whole speech and the related debate).
What does the bill do?
The bill will introduce new laws relating to cross media ownership. Specifically, it will permit cross-media mergers in radio licence areas where sufficient diversity of media groups remains following the merger.
What are the current cross media ownership laws?
18th Oct 2006, 11:21 AM – Representatives Broadcasting Services Amendment (Media Ownership) Bill 2006 - Second Reading - Agree with the bill's main idea
The majority agreed with the bill's main idea (in parliamentary jargon, they agreed to read the bill for a second time). This means that the House can now discuss the bill in more detail.
How "voted very strongly against" is worked out
The MP's votes count towards a weighted average where the most important votes get 50 points, less important votes get 10 points, and less important votes for which the MP was absent get 2 points. In important votes the MP gets awarded the full 50 points for voting the same as the policy, 0 points for voting against the policy, and 25 points for not voting. In less important votes, the MP gets 10 points for voting with the policy, 0 points for voting against, and 1 (out of 2) if absent.
Then, the number gets converted to a simple english language phrase based on the range of values it's within.
No of votes
Most important votes (50 points)
MP voted with policy 0 0 0
MP voted against policy 8 0 400
MP absent 0 0 0
Less important votes (10 points)
MP voted against policy 0 0 0
Less important absentees (2 points)
MP absent* 0 0 0
*Pressure of other work means MPs or Senators are not always available to vote – it does not always indicate they have abstained. Therefore, being absent on a less important vote makes a disproportionatly small difference.
Agreement score = MP's points / total points = 0 / 400 = 0.0%.
between 95% and 100% becomes "very strongly for"
between 85% and 95% becomes "strongly for"
between 60% and 85% becomes "moderately for"
between 40% and 60% becomes "a mixture of for and against"
between 15% and 40% becomes "moderately against"
between 5.0% and 15% becomes "strongly against"
between 0.0% and 5.0% becomes "very strongly against"