Pauline Hanson demands publication of all staff salaries above $200,000 and inquiry into how ABC and SBS compete with commercial rivals

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The government bill watering down cross-media ownership restrictions is closer to passing, with One Nation announcing its in-principle support in return for greater restrictions on ABC finances and neutrality.

One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, announced on Tuesday it had done a deal with the government in return for concessions, including an inquiry into whether the ABC competes unfairly with commercial competitors and measures to ensure its impartiality.

The government is still negotiating with the crossbench and will need one of the Greens or the Nick Xenophon Team to sign on, both of which have submitted demands to the communications minister, Mitch Fifield.

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The NXT is still considering its position and has not yet responded to the One Nation proposals. It is pursuing changes to favour smaller and independent publishers, including tax breaks and an inquiry into Google and Facebook’s impact into their revenue.

The bill would abolish the 75% reach rule that prevents Nine Entertainment, Seven West Media and the Ten Network from owning their regional affiliates and the rule preventing moguls from controlling a free-to-air TV station, newspapers and radio stations in the same market.

At first One Nation and the Greens objected to abolishing the so-called two-out-of-three rule, but on Tuesday Hanson announced her party had given “conditional support” for the bill after consultation with industry and government.

Hanson said the government had given an assurance it would ask the ABC to provide “details of the wages and conditions of all staff whose wages and allowances are greater than $200,000, similar to what is being implement[ed] by the British Broadcasting Corporation”. The requirement extends to “on-air talent”.

“The government has also agreed to undertake a competitive neutrality inquiry into the ABC and to legislate a requirement for the ABC to be ‘fair’ and ‘balanced’.”

The inquiry will ask whether the ABC and SBS adversely affect their commercial rivals through practices like paying for ads on search engines, providing programming already catered for by competitors and competing for broadcast rights for sport.

The additional requirement to be fair and balanced comes on top of the ABC’s existing duty to be “accurate and impartial”.

At a press conference in Canberra, Hanson said the ABC had “swung too far to the left over the years”. One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts said the ABC “glossed over whole sides in its reporting”.

The ABC charter will insert a requirement to focus on regional Australia, and to consult an advisory council on the regions. The changes will also provide an extra $12m for community radio.

One Nation senator Brian Burston said the ABC currently spent 17% of its budget in regional areas and he wanted that doubled to 35%, leaving 65% of spending for what he called the broadcaster’s “Green constituency” in metropolitan areas.

The government will create a register of foreign ownership of media assets, which would require foreign persons to disclose holdings of 2.5% or higher in TV, radio and newspapers.

Fifield welcomed One Nation’s support, but shadow communications minister, Michelle Rowland, labelled the deal “a direct assault on the independence of our public broadcasters”.

Rowland said the government was “hell-bent on destroying media diversity in Australia” and the “ridiculous deal confirms how low the Turnbull Government is prepared to stoop” to achieve it.

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance accused the government of “succumb[ing] to the baiting of One Nation senators and their obsession with one of Australia’s most trusted and respected institutions”.

On Tuesday the Greens party room met and agreed to continue negotiating with the government. The Greens primary demand is the need to protect the ABC and SBS, including with greater funding, against attacks on the public broadcasters’ independence from One Nation.

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The Greens are also asking for a commitment to local content and are working with the NXT on measures it says will protect journalists’ jobs, but seeking to ensure tax breaks are not exploited by larger publishers.

One Nation has made – but never delivered on – threats to block budget measures if the government did not cut the ABC’s funding by $600m, which the government refused to do.

One Nation’s grievances against the public broadcasters include the alleged leftwing bias of the ABC, the complaint that it excessively scrutinises One Nation after a Four Corners special on dysfunction in the party, and claims that SBS has too much multicultural and LGBTI content.

In the past week the ABC has issued a directive to its employees to be impartial on the issue of same-sex marriage and to give all perspectives a fair hearing ahead of the pending postal survey on marriage equality.