Censorship Minister Conroy 'busted' for corrupt dealings - International Mass Media

Censorship Minister Conroy 'busted' for corrupt dealings
by gan Sunday, Feb 14 2010, 6:17am
international / mass media / commentary

Censorship Minister In $250m TV Deal Scandal

Report by Michelle Starr from Smarthouse follows:

The Liberal Party is demanding an explanation from Minister for Communications Stephen Conroy after discovering the Senator went on a skiing trip with Seven Network owner Kerry Stokes just weeks before announcing a massive $250 million cut to television licence fees.

The handout will cut television licensing fees by 83 per cent over a two-year period. The TV networks paid just under $300m in licensing fees in the 2008-09 period.

As there are no conditions that the money be used by TV networks for local content, it will go straight to the bottom line of network owners at the expense of Australian taxpayers—in spite of Senator Conroy's assertion that the purpose of the cut was to protect Australian content.

Senator Conroy met with Mr Stokes in Colorado while the Government was considering requests for license fee cuts from the free-to-air networks.

He confirmed the secret meeting with the Sunday Herald Sun, saying that his conduct was "entirely appropriate". Both Senator Conroy and Mr Stokes refuse to say what was discussed.

The discovery of this meeting comes hard on the heels of the controversy over the appointment of Mike Kaiser as the head of the National Broadband Network on a $450,000 salary. He was appointed on Senator Conroy's recommendation. The position was not advertised, nor were any other candidates considered, it was discovered at a Senate hearing last week.

Opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne says that the Colorado meeting is not as big a concern as Senator Conroy's portfolio performance.

"The actual visit and the skiing with Kerry Stokes is not nearly as important as exactly what is going on with the communications portfolio with this minister," Mr Pyne ABC's Insiders.

"The Minister seems to be the minister for good times.

"He's got a $450,000 job for an old mate in the National Broadband Network. A $17 million tender for National Broadband Network which ended up going absolutely nowhere and has just lost money ... He's given $250 million to the commercial television networks.

"He hasn't yet said how he arrived at the figure, what exactly the money is to be used for, and what guarantees he's received from the commercial networks that it will be used for something that the public will see the benefit [in]," Mr Pyne said.

© 2010 Smarthouse.

Federal Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says the Government's $250 million rebate to the free-to-air television networks looks like an election-year bribe.

The Government says the money is to ensure the networks continue to meet their commitments to broadcast Australian content, but no conditions were attached to enforce that.

Mr Abbott told Fairfax Radio he would not have given the networks the money if he had been in Government.

"Maybe there is more to this which the Government hasn't told us about, but at the moment it doesn't look good," he said.

"It looks they're buying favourable coverage. On the evidence that has been made publicly available I wouldn't have done it.

"It looks like at this stage, unless the Government can justify much better than it has so far, it looks like an election-year bribe, that's what it looks like."

But Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says the rebate is partly to compensate the networks for the cost of switching to digital.

"This represents a considerable impact on the industry which is being imposed by regulatory change," he said.

"I've already been asked in the parliament about the impact on the long-term security of delivery of free-to-air services across Australia.

"We are determined to honour those commitments, but it's wrong to assume that it can be done cost-free."

© 2010 ABC

[But where does loud mouth, NO BALLS, 'gay' (according to his daughter) Tony Abbott, stand on CENSORSHIP? We are aware it's popular with minority media mogul interests but WE, ENLIGHTENED Australian VOTERS, fought hard and won against CONSERVATIVE, CENSORSHIP policies in the 50's and 60's! Who would stare a political gift-horse in the mouth, Tony? Another servile, gutless, Liberal, LACKEY, politician, that's WHO! But thanks for all the help, you people are truly pathetic! "D-E-M-O-C-R-A-C-Y," look it up!]

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