Senator Nick Xenophon has rejected the deal that One Nation has secured with the Turnbull government on media reform that would have seen tough new restrictions imposed on the ABC.
He says the government’s proposed media reforms are not about “the ABC or SBS”, and he can’t see the need to force the national broadcaster to be “fair and balanced” when its charter says it must be accurate and impartial already.
Xenophon is working behind the scenes with the Greens on an alternative deal which, if accepted by the government, would have the numbers to pass parliament.
The government has signalled a preparedness to look at a number of issues being championed by Xenophon and the Greens, including tax breaks to help the viability of small, independent publishers.
On Tuesday the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, agreed in-principle to the Turnbull governments’s media reform bill watering down cross-media ownership restrictions, in return for a raft of concessions.
The government has agreed to One Nation’s demand to legislate a requirement for the ABC to be “fair” and “balanced” to counter what One Nation believes is the organisation’s leftwing bias.
It has also agreed to a One Nation demand to establish an inquiry into whether the ABC competes unfairly with commercial competitors, and to force the ABC to publish “details of the wages and conditions of all staff whose wages and allowances are greater than $200,000”.
But Xenophon says he does not support the deal because the reforms should not be targeting the ABC.
“[This] is not about the ABC or SBS,” Xenophon told ABC radio on Wednesday.
“I cannot see the need for the so-called ‘fair and balanced’ test. What that would mean to the ABC, in terms of the way it could fearlessly report issues ... really concerns me.
“This [bill] is about the existential crisis that commercial media has found itself in, largely as a result of the rise of Google and Facebook – the fact that they hoover away $4bn worth of advertising revenue in this country from commercial media outlets.
“This talk of the ABC being subject to further restrictions and for ABC staff to have their salaries published, that would be quite unprecedented and I think put the ABC at a real disadvantage with commercial broadcasters,” he said.
Xenophon said he would like an inquiry into Google and Facebook, and tax breaks for small media outlets to allow them to expand and hire more staff.
“Australian media has lost something like 3,000 journalist jobs since the GFC,” he said. “One way to remedy that would be to give tax breaks to publishers, to smaller mastheads and broadcasters, but principally in relation to online and print media, and if you had and accelerated tax write-off similar to R&D concessions, that would turbocharge media in this country.
“It would create, if it’s done properly, many hundreds of jobs for journalists around the country. It would lead to more diversity and greater coverage, and would ameliorate the concerns very significantly about any mergers.”
He said the government understands the need for his proposed changes, and it has put a proposal to his team of senators.
“We need to put a counter-proposal,” he said.
“We want it to be a meaningful package that will make a very real difference to quality journalism in this country, and particularly journalism in the regions where they have seen a lot of media outlets drop off because of the media market being so problematic at the moment.”
One Nation has previously 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 has refused to do.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts told the ABC on Wednesday that News Corp was far more balanced than the ABC, Fairfax, or Guardian Australia.
He admitted that News Corp executive chairman Rupert Murdoch had campaigned for different issues over the years, and even switched political positions, but he said that was okay because he had taken the right side.
“Fairfax and the Guardian have taken the wrong side,” he said.
“They’ve gone over with the control-side of politics, the distortion, the fake news, and they’re paying the price.
“Murdoch is very savvy. He will cater to his market, and he has many markets,” he said.
One Nation senator Brian Burston, when asked about the ABC’s balance, said the ABC should give anti-vaxxers equal airtime even though he disagrees with them and thinks their message is a threat to public health.
“I think any debate deserves equal weighting irrespective of the topic, within reason, I guess,” he told Sky News.
“I think they are entitled to their view and perspective as well and what they see as perhaps some immunisation of children not being appropriate,” he said.
Labor health spokeswoman Catherine King quickly criticised Burston on Twitter.
“There is only one side. There is no debate. Vaccinations save lives - full stop,” she tweeted.
