13 May 2016
EO&E
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Now, NBN – hot topic, everyone’s talking about it. You’ve just checked out some fibre to the node technology in Ballan, can you tell us a bit about that?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Yeah, great news for Ballan, as of the 20th of May there will be NBN switch-on there.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
That’s a week from today.
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s a week from today. So it’s very soon. And that’ll be the technology that is known as fibre to the node. So my message for the people of Ballan is start talking to retail service providers. You don’t actually interact with NBN to give you service, you interact with the retail service providers, so shop around, make sure you get a good deal, and make sure you get a product that’s right for your needs.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Now this fibre to the node – it’s been compared to building a duplicated freeway from Ballarat then finding at Caroline Springs it becomes a dirt road to the CBD. Is that fair?
MITCH FIFIELD:
No, it’s not fair at all. Our predecessors took a theological approach to the NBN…
GABRIELLE HODGSON
Theological? Okay.
MITCH FIFIELD:
A theological approach. Senator Conroy decided that the NBN had to be full fibre at any cost. When Malcolm Turnbull became the Minister for Communications, he thought, let’s have a look at this. Surely the bottom line is how you can rollout the NBN the fastest and at the least cost. Because we want all Australians to have the NBN as soon as possible. So, we’re taking what’s called a multi-technology mix, which means we’re technology agnostic. Whatever is the technology that will work, that will get a service to people quicker, and at lowest cost, then that’s what we’ll do.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Do whatever works.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Do whatever works. So there’s fibre to the premises, there’s fibre to the node, there’s fixed wireless, and in capital cities well be using pay TV cables, known as HFC. And in remote areas we’ll be using satellite. So using a combination of technologies. And the great news is, through this approach people will get the NBN nation-wide six to eight years sooner than would have been the case under our predecessors.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Six to eight years.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Six to eight years sooner, and at $30 billion less cost.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
So what is the total cost?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, the Commonwealth has indicated that our cap on equity contributions will be $29.5 billion. NBN will have to borrow money beyond that, but 29.5 billion is the Commonwealth cap.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Now, speaking of remote areas, we’ve got a few blackspots around. Dereel has been quite controversial, we’ve had a couple of big bushfires, Lal Lal, Spargo Creek and Mt Helen. When will we get these black spots fixed up?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Yes well there’s some good news here. And that is through the mobile black sport programme that we’ve put in place through the first round, nation-wide there’ll be 499 new mobile base stations which will cover about half of the 6,000 community nominated black spots. In Ballarat, 83 of the 94 community nominated black spots will be covered through 7 new or upgraded mobile base stations. And so for areas like Spargo Creek and the Ballan-Daylesford Road, the new base station at Leonards Hill in 2017 will cover those areas.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
So right up near the wind turbines there?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, you’d, you’d have the benefit of the local knowledge.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Yeah, well if you go along that road there’s two big wind turbines, so up there somewhere, ok
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right, but something that’s really important to emphasise, and this is, I know, an area that Sarah Wade is very passionate about, is we’ve got to make sure that this programme continues. Over the 6 years of our predecessors, they did not spend a dollar on mobile black spots, not a dollar. As a result of that we’ve got some ground to make up, which is why we’ve had the first round of the mobile black spot programme. $100m which we’ve leverage to $385m when you count State Government, local Government and telco contributions. But we’ve also announced Round 2 of the mobile black spots programme, an additional $60m, and Sarah is pushing very hard for Mt Helen to be on that list.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Now, what spot of timelines are we talking about, you know, these, these black sports fixed in four years or next year, what, how soon can this be done?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Look, overall it’s a 3 year programme. It takes time to roll out 499 base stations and it’s the Telcos themselves that are building these, it’s not the government. We’re putting money on the table that’s encouraged them to do this. But for the 7 mobile base stations in Ballarat it’ll be over the next couple of years. But already, the first base station has been switched on at Blackwood, so that’s good news.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Ok, now Telstra Air. You know, the listeners may be familiar with the public phones with the pink roofs, quite a few of them in the CBD in Ballarat, but you’ve got whole communities, like Ballan, where there’s none at all. Who, who decides where these go?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, Telstra does. Telstra these days is…
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
You can’t tell them what to do, can you?
MITCH FIFIELD:
is a private, look as tempting as it is, they wouldn’t listen
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
You can’t hint to them, can you?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, look, we could always talk to Telstra, and we do talk to Telstra. Where those sites are is a matter for them. We do, through what’s known as the Universal Service Obligation, give Telstra money to make sure that there are public phones in good distribution, and I know Telstra are using those public phones to be Wi-Fi hot spots in places. But look, that’s something I’ll raise with them.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Okay, television. WIN TV, Ballarat’s old BTV 6, it’s in a bit of a state. I understand the station in Walker Street’s got about 45 staff left, 4 journos, 4 cameramen, and the news is coming out of Wollongong. Our own newsroom is literally 3 metres away, but how cheated do you think people feel when their so called local news is coming from a thousand kilometres away?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Look, I can understand the desire of people to have local news that’s really local and is produced locally. One of the things that’s been raised with me since I’ve been the Minister for Communications is that regional TV broadcasters want to have greater freedom to configure themselves in a way that makes them viable. And what that means is there are some arcane media laws, things like the 75% audience reach rule, that they would like to see gone, so that they can reconfigure themselves, get scale, be in a better positon to provide local content. Now, we have those laws before the parliament, or, we did before the parliament was dissolved, and we’ll be bringing them back again. But we have important local protections in those changes to media law, because when people hear talk of organisations merging, they understandably have concern about local content. So we’ve put some important protections in there so that if we get rid of the 75% and organisations come together and have what’s called a trigger, which would be them having more than 75% audience reach nation-wide, we will put in place additional local content requirements. So for local TV, you know, you’ll have to go from 120 to 150 points of local content per week
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Soo this is a points system, what’s included in this point system?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Points are essentially a proxy for minutes of local content. So you would get 1 point for local content that’s relevant in the broader region. You get 2 points for local content that’s more relevant to the local area and we’ve also introduced an additional point, so you get 3 points if you have local content that’s relevant to the local area that also is filmed locally.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
So the more local it is the more points you get?
MITCH FIFIELD:
That’s right, so it’s an incentive. We want to use an incentive rather than a stick under these new arrangements, but we will, if there are changes in configuration of organisations, lock in higher local content requirements.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Another thing with television and the way it’s going at the moment, is, look WIN in Ballarat has thousands of hours of film and tape. It all dates back to 1962, I’ve spoken to the person who catalogued it all. There’s a big fear at the moment that it’ll all end up in a rubbish skip. In terms of history it’s potentially a bigger issue than saving Civic Hall. Could you make an appointment with the manager and work out what’ll happen to all those moving images and possibly ask for it to be preserved, donated, something to happen?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, as well as being Minister for Communications I am also Minister for the Arts, which means that I have the great joy of being responsible for the National Film and Sound Archive, who do tremendous work.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Can you get these guys together?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, that’s what I’d like to do, is to put them in contact with the National Film and Sound Archive. Now, understandably the Film and Sound Archive have finite resources. So if there’s a commercial organisation that wants to work with them to preserve some of their archives then that’s something the Film and Sound Archive is happy to do, but obviously the other organisation would need to come to the party. But it’s really important that we preserve these incredible things. Last time I went to the Film and Sound archive they were working on preserving some old episodes of Cop Shop, for those who can remember. Also, they were preserving a 1970s 2SM interview with David Bowie, so there’s some fantastic stuff that they do there. So if you’re ever in Canberra, head to the National Film and Sound Archive, well worth a look.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Alright, is there scope to preserve it in Ballarat – a centre, or an existing museum, library, that sort of thing?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well, I think the first and most important thing is to actually preserve the material before it deteriorates, that’s the first task.
GABRIELE HODGSON:
I was told some of the cans were rusting, the cans of film, so…
MITCH FIFIELD:
And then the second task is how to provide access to people. But when things are digitised, it’s much easier to provide a broad access to people online, for instance.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
And just finally, speaking of digitised, digital radio in country Victoria, will it ever happen?
MITCH FIFIELD:
Well I mean look, digital radio, it’s happened in parts of metropolitan Australia, but it’s ultimately up to the individual organisations themselves if they want to do that. But Commercial Radio Australia are putting a number of propositions forward to me about ways that we can encourage it.
GABRIELLE HODGSON:
Ok, thank you for your time.
MITCH FIFIELD:
Great to be here, thanks.
GARRATH COCKERELL:
Thank you, that’s Federal Communications Minster, Mitch Fifield.
[ends]