~ MME MONISTER
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY EMBARGOED AGAINST DELIVERY
SPEECH BY THE PRIME MINISTER
AAP EDITORIAL CONFERENCE
GOLD COAST 11 JUNE 1987
This is the second time that AAP haG hosted a conference for
editors and news directors of the nation's media.
It is in fact only the second time that such a conference
has been held in Australia. I remember with pleasure
addressing your first conference in May 1985 AAP's
anniversary. I must begin therefore by congratulating AAP and its chief
executive Lee Casey for again displaying the initiative to
provide such a valuable forum for the men and women who
produce the nation's news.
As Harry Go~ rdon observes in the notes which accompany the
conference agenda, it's not a bad idea for AAP, which acts
as a vehiclo to the media, to provide this means of
communication Eetween them.
So I trust the conference will become a regular major event
in the media calendar.
If anything, the role of the editor and news producer is
becoming even more important.
For you are the people who are responsible for ensuring tho
maintenance of our standards of freedom, accuracy and
fairness in the media.
Australiz hnas no inbuilt constitutional guarantee of the
Freedom cf the Press comparable to the First Amendment of
the US Constitution.
Instead, it is part of the reality of Australian public life
that the Australian media must operate within a web of
common law protections of, for example, privacy and national
security. But it is not parliament, and it is not the courts, and it
is not the proprietors, but you editors and news producers,
who must ensure on a day to day basis how that web of
regulation is to apply.
I would be less than honest if I said that as a Politician 1
agreed with every one of your editorial decisions on the
reporting of politics in this country.
That great Australian, my predecessor Ben Chifley, expressed
a little of the* irritation Prime Ministers feel for the
press when he observed:
" I do not pretend to gaze into the crystal ball and foresee
all that will happen in the future. That divine right or
gift is given only to the editors of newspapers."
But that does not mean I lack respect for the complexity of
your task. The contrary is true.
Even more importantly, I have frequently reaffirmed as Prime
minister my belief as to the fundamental importance of the
free press in the definition of Australia as a tree country.
Some of Australia's neighbours disagree, and sometimtes,
regrettably, they express that disagreement by restricting
the ability of your staff members to do their job.
only recently, during the tragic events in Fiji, we saw a
military government crack down on a free press the first
time we have witnessed in the South Pacific the knee-jerk
repression of the media which is the familiar hallmark of
authoritzrian regimes aroundi the world.
Desp ' ite that crack down, I was proud and gratified that
Australian journalists kept at their job and provided a
detailed coverage of the coup and its follow-up.
I believe this is an appropriate audience for me to express
my personal gratitude and respect to those Australian
journalists responsible for what was, overall, a
professional and informed coverage of a very difficult
story. The next few weeks will provide all of you with another
difficult story.
Federal election campaigns provide unparalleled examples of
what I described before as your responsibility to protect
the standards of a free, accurate and fair media.
At no time is the need for such a media greater than at
federal elections.
At a time when the rest of the community takes sides, and
expresses its divisions through the medium of the ballot
box, it is vital that you remain independent and impartial.
I certainly am not going to provide any advice to you about
how you should go about your task in the lead-up to 11 July
if, for no other reason, that you would tell me what,
rather uncomfortably, to do with such advice.
But I do believe there is room generally for more coverage,
and more detailed coverage, of -the complex economic issues
our nation faces.
Better technology and increasingly high standards of
journalism mean that public discussion of the economy has,
happily, been liberated from its traditional preserve on the
editorial pages of upmarket broadsheet newspapers.
Even so, however, I believe some of you have missed out on a
great story or at least not given it the attention it
deserves. It is a story about nothing less than the nature and future
of the Australian nation.
It is a story about a massive transformation taking place in
our factories, our boardrooms, our financial institutions
a great awareness starting to permeate the Australian
society a historic watershed in our national development.
I refer to the dramatic and exciting restructuring of the
Australian economy which is underway.
At the turn of the 21st century, Australians will regard the
mid-1980s as among the most crucial in our history akin to
the years of post-war reconstruction or to the growth of the
gold mining and pastoral industries in our colonial days.
They may be puzzled at the relative lack of attention given
this story by parts of the ntedia of the day.
Because they will appreciate that vital decisions and
essential sacrifices were made.
They will appreciate that the nation turned away from the
traditional way of doing things and started out on a now
approach. I am proud~ that after decades of neglect by conservative
governments, it has been my government which has started
out on this new path on the task of restructuring the
Australian economy.
We have realised, and, more importantly, acted on the
realisation, that Australia as a nation of 16 million people
cannot hope to maintain our comfortable standards of living
by hoping the world will continue to pay us good prices for
what we shear off the sheep's back or dig out of the ground.
To maintain and increase those standards, we must diversify
and restructure our economy, building more internationally
competitive manufacturing and service industries.
To foster the growth of those industries or more
precisely, to foster the jobs and income those industries
will provide for Australia has been the rationale behind
the profound changes my Government has made to the economic
institutions in this country.
We flo~ tod the dollar with the result that Australian
exporters are more competitive.
we deregulated the financial markets with the result that
capital c: in flow into Australia more easily to help build
our economy.
we sought the cooperation of the trade union movement to
secure wage restraint with the result that our export
industries can compete effectively on world markets.
We are woll on the way to reducing the protection which had
allowed our small manufacturing base to eschew the challenge
of exporting and service instead the small domestic market.
We are giving increasing emphasise to education and training
and to ensuring that our workers have relevant and adaptablo
skills.
The Australian media industry, too, has undergone profound
change, which will result in a more competitive structure
which is nore capable of exploiting the opportunities
offered by new technology.
This hao been in part duo to the Government's new media
legislation which was approved by Parliament in the final
week of the autumn session.
The five m. illion regional viewers who currently receive
only one commercial service and who will now receive two
extra survices will rapidly appreciate the benefits of the
new structure.
It is ou' intention that this legislation will bring to
regional viewers the kind of broadcast services hitherto
solely available to viewers in the capital cities, not leact
by giving country viewers access to a third television
station. The 30-17ear-old two station rule on ownership and control of
commercial television was replaced with a 60% population
reach rule.
Together with the provision of increased regional serviceo
this new rule will foster the development of more balanced
and stronger commercial TV services.
The new structure will also ensure that your viewers and
readers have diversity in their sources of information, by
ending cross-media ownership.
The new legislation will also bring to city and country
viewers alike significant networking capacity with all the
advantages that will bring in cost saving and in the
encourageiaent of greater Australian content.
I am confident too that the changes will ensure the
retention of the strong competitive streak which has
characterised the Australian media since its early days.
Competition will flourish for the first time in regional
television -vhere none now exists; and competition will
continue to flourish in the newspaper industry where,
alongside the giants of News Ltd and the Fairfax group, a
number of second tier newspaper groups has sprung up.
At the samie time the cross-media agglomerations, which have
typified t10 Australian media industry since the newopaper
proprietors saw the potential of radio in the 1920s, will be
significantly broken down.
Let me also briefly list some of the other innovations
introduced by my Government in the interests of increasing
the competition and quality of the Australian media.
. the SBS network has grown substantially. Since M~ arch
1983 SBS se:: vices have been extended to Canberra, Cooma,
Goulburn, Nws~ castle, Adelaide, Brisbane, Wollongong, Perth,
Hobart and the Gold Coast.
* ABC's second regional radio network, to be opened in
Duffy, on 213 June provides a second ABC service for those
parts of tho country which currently receive only one ABC
station.
Some 80 transmitters are to be installed in Queensland,
western Austrcalia and the Northern Territory this year, with
about 300 cites to be included In the network over the next
decade, ABC TV eiid radio services are also being extended to
remote aree 5. The Remote or Underserved Commuunities Scheme
will bring A3C services to 42 small communities in New South
Wales, Victo:: ia and Western Australia which have never had
them beforo. The Homestead and Community Broadcasting
Satellite Scheme is enabling even smaller communities to
receive ABC :' adio and TV for the first time via satellite.
Australiz's regional residents will also benefit from the
expansion oZ the commercial FR radio licences currently
being plannzd. It is our intention where possible that
these services will be provided by new operators.
Twenty-seven markets will receive new markets by 1989 with
the Gold CoF. st among the first batch.*
. A third commercial television licence for Perth is
expected to commence service on Australia Day 1988.
. Community and special interest groups have not been left
out. Twenty-six new public stations have been licensed
since March 1983. Radio services for the print handicapped
are in the process of moving onto the broadcast bands where
they can be received by everyone.
. In telecom~ munications, AUSSAT's first satellites have
been launchecd and are operating; Telecom's national fibre
optic link has been started; and Telecom has also introduced
new services including Viatel and teletex.
Another recent innovation is the concept of Video and
Audio Entertainnent and Information Services ( VAEIS) such
as Sportoplay and Skychannel. These services provide sport
and entertainment packages to Clubs, Hotels and other
non-doametic users.
The achicvements I believe are, by any standard, impressive.
They will ensuro that your viewers and readers receive more
of the high quality services they deserve and expect.
The medii ic not, as I have already said, an area in which
any Government intervention is desirable in terms of what
you report day by day or how you report it.
But we do have a role in attempting to create the framework
particularly in the electronic media in which as many
people an possible can gain access to a diverse range of
your services.
I bolivo wo have done that.
We have welcomed, and will continue to welcome, new players
in the media industry.
Ultimately however your responsibility as the principal
disseminatcrs of information in our society is the koy
one. I wish you well in that task. _ I