Labor’s proposal for local content on radio and television (unlike its pharmaceutical changes) are effective and important because of the wording of the Free Trade Agreement.
They are certainly not superfluous.
Present rules and the FTA allow for 55 per cent local content for programming and 89 per cent for advertising. That is the cap. The FTA requires that if they are ever reduced later they cannot be raised again. It is called ratcheting down.
At present the level is set by the Australian Broadcasting Authority. The authority could cut the levels and the Government or Parliament could not restore them without facing penalties under the FTA.
Labor wants the present levels legislated, so only Parliament could lower them.
The Government says that legislating the existing levels is superfluous, so as it does not matter the Government will go along with it.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said, “What Labor has put forward what is in effect a superfluous amendment, in relation to local content – obviously being superfluous, we’re happy to go along with it.”
Downer is either unaware of or does not understand ratcheting down.
Nor should Labor be fooled by the Government’s proposal to legislate to allow the levels to be set by regulation. Regulations are set by the Minister. They can be disallowed by the full Parliament later, but until they are they have the force of law. It means that if the Minister upon a whim lowers the local-content levels, Australia would face sanctions under the FTA if Parliament later disallowed those regulations.
The local content levels should be legislated not regulated, so the Parliament retains the power to lower them, not the Minister. Once lowered, the FTA says they can never be raised again.