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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2063 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

I think the approach that the Federal Government has taken to Radio Australia is simply unacceptable. All of those who have spent any time whatsoever in the region would agree that Radio Australia really is the voice of Australia. The way lots of people in our region get all the information they get about Australia is out of Radio Australia. We must make sure that, if we are to have a service into our region, it must not be a half-baked service; it must be a service that adequately reflects who we are as Australians, what we are thinking as Australians and the sort of image, I suppose, and approach that we want our neighbours to have about us and to know about us. It is a significant opportunity for marketing and promoting Australia, our cities, our policies and the economic opportunities that exist here.

I think the Federal Government should significantly change Radio Australia. I think they should modernise it; I think they should broaden its focus; I think they should change its charter; and I think they should use it as a significant marketing opportunity and information opportunity, of course, into our region. For the interests of members, I will table that press release. Again, it was not something that we were trying to play politics on, as Mr Corbell is today. We were getting out there, as, by the way, did the last leaders forum. In fact, the approach to lobby the Federal Government with regard to Radio Australia was passed by, I think, all Premiers and Chief Ministers in Australia, all of whom, except one, of course, are Liberal or National Party leaders. Certainly, it was not a political approach but one where we, as Liberal-National Party coalition leaders, were out there lobbying our Federal colleagues and saying, "Hey; this is not good enough. Radio Australia is really important to this country; it is really important to trade and to our future".

Mr Speaker, I come back to the real issue here. The real issue here is that this motion has been brought forward by Mr Corbell today as a straight political issue. If he was not being political about it, he would have suggested that this Assembly condemn not just the current Federal Liberal Government's decision to cut funding to the ABC but also the previous Labor Government's decision to cut.

Ms McRae: For heaven's sake, what is the point of condemning a government that is not there? What a lot of nonsense!

Mr Berry: You made a very explicit promise.

Mr Corbell: John Howard broke a very explicit promise.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Settle down, everybody.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, it has just as much validity as condemning the current Federal Government. The reality is that successive Federal governments, Labor and Liberal, have cut regional services from the ABC. The ACT has been one of the greatest targets of that. It would be very hard to cut the ABC locally any further than it has already been cut.

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