The communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, is seeking a green light from Tony Abbott to proceed with reform of media ownership.
Turnbull is understood to be seeking formal policy approval to put a submission to cabinet which would argue in favour of abolishing Australia’s platform-specific ownership rules regulating newspapers and radio and television.
Australian broadcasting regulations prohibit a person controlling a commercial television licence, a commercial radio licence and a newspaper in the same area.
A single owner cannot control commercial television licences reaching more than 75% of the Australian population.
Turnbull flagged his interest in scrapping the “reach” and “two out of three” rule more than a year ago. He contends that technological change – essentially the rise of the internet and subscription television – has rendered the current regulatory framework redundant.
The prime minister has said repeatedly that the Coalition has no appetite to take on the media regulation debate if there is no consensus in the industry about how to proceed.
Turnbull’s approach puts the ball firmly in the prime minister’s court.
A year of talks between the government and leading industry figures has produced no consensus on the best way forward, and given the competing commercial interests involved, consensus in the future seems quite unlikely.
Abbott will have to decide whether the government should proceed with a deregulation agenda, or shelve it indefinitely.
If the Turnbull proposal ultimately succeeds, it could trigger a run of mergers and rationalisations in the Australian media sector, which is among the most concentrated in terms of ownership in the developed world.
Media reform is not only contentious with the industry, it remains a sensitive topic with the National party.
Turnbull’s decision to flag his interest in overhauling the regulatory framework sparked a robust backlash from some regional MPs.
The communications minister was forced to give public assurances that any new regime pursued by the government would include local content rules forcing regional broadcasters to produce local news bulletins.
Labor’s attitude to the proposal is not yet clear.
