The press freedom changes recommended by the Parliament’s Intelligence Committee do not go far enough to protect journalists, the Greens say.

Chair of the Senate’s Inquiry into Press Freedoms, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

"The Parliament's secret Intelligence and Security Committee has failed to protect journalists, democracy and the public's right to know what the government is doing in their name.

“Journalism remains a crime and journalists can still be jailed under this proposal.

The Secretary to the Prime Minister has today told the Senate’s Covid Committee that money previously promised to help the arts & entertainment industry won’t flow until after restrictions are lifted.
Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young pressed the Secretary on when money will actually flow to the arts and entertainment industry given $250m in funding was announced almost seven weeks ago, after a three month wait for an industry-specific package.

The Morrison Government’s $10million for Fox Sports to broadcast women’s and niche sports is part of its Covid Response Package, yet no extra funding has been given to the ABC or SBS during the pandemic, the Senate’s Covid Select Committee has heard today.
Under questioning from Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications, Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, the Department of Communications told the Committee the program which has already seen $30m given to Murdoch, was extended to help get women’s and niche sports broadcast once they’re back up and running.

Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, chair of the Senate Inquiry into Australia Post and Greens spokesperson for communications, responded to the statement released today by former Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate:

“The Morrison Government's and Australia Post’s poor treatment and public bullying of Christine Holgate has cost taxpayer more than $1million.

“Today’s settlement between the former CEO and Australia Post is vindication that Ms Holgate was mistreated and her departure was badly mismanaged.

The Greens have slammed the Morrison Government‘s decision today to give another $10million of public money to Fox Sports, taking the total amount of corporate welfare under this program to the Murdoch company to $40million.

Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“Another day, another public hand-out to the Morrison Government’s Murdoch mates.

“Giving tens of millions to Fox Sports while cutting funding to the ABC really is the height of arrogance.

Today’s $400m tax incentive for bringing international productions to be filmed in Australia must be backed up with government commitment to support locally, Australian-made stories, the Greens say.
“Having Johnny Depp and his Pirates entourage in Australia is great, but we need to back Australian owned and made stories too,” Greens Arts & Communications spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.

The Morrison Government must significantly increase the arts and entertainment industry recovery package following a return to lockdown measures in Melbourne, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

The Greens are calling on the Morrison Government to rule out killing more Australian jobs by permanently abolishing local content rules and to get on with requiring streaming giants to produce Australian-made shows.

Greens Spokesperson for Communication and the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said now the consultation period for the local content options paper had closed, Minister Fletcher needed to get on with the job.

ABS stats released today show the arts and recreation industry has lost four times as many payroll jobs as the construction industry but has received a third of the support, highlighting just how inadequate the Morrison Government’s arts and entertainment industry package is, the Greens say.

Greens Spokesperson for the Arts Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“The construction industry is receiving a package worth three times as much as the arts and entertainment industry despite only losing 5.3 per cent of payroll jobs compared to 24% per cent.

The Greens have welcomed the last minute extension to the free-to-air broadcast licences for Community TV stations Channel 44 in Adelaide and Channel 31 in Melbourne.

Greens Spokesperson for Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said:

“Waiting until the night before Community TV switches off forever to grant an extension to their broadcast licences was a cruel move by the Morrison Government, however this last minute reprieve is welcome.