COMPETITION POLICY REFORM AND NATIONAL COMMUNICATION POLICY

RECOMENDATIONS

  This submission to the current Review of National Competition Policy 
Reforms recommends development of a national communications policy through 
commencing national and local reviews of communication requirements for 
sustainable development, lead by investigation of communication 
requirements for development in the health and human service industries.

  It is also recommended that the implementation of the recent report on 
the review of the Human Services System in Redfern and Waterloo should be 
undertaken in this general environment of government support for improved 
communications development.

Recommendations regarding the current Commonwealth government inquiry into 
the provision of commercial television broadcast services after 2006, to 
decide whether a new commercial broadcaster should enter the arena, are 
also provided in this context.

HEALTH, HUMAN SERVICES AND COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT

As the report of the competition policy reform review notes, the provision 
of key human services such as health, education, aged care, and natural 
resource management (other than water), have been largely outside the 
purview of national competition policy (p.xxxi). The report recommends that 
the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) initiate an independent public 
review of Australias health care system as a whole and that this should be 
the first step in the development of an integrated reform program to 
address structural problems of long standing that are preventing the health 
care system from performing to its potential (xlii).

The report makes no specific recommendations about the human services 
industry.  However, it is clear to any health industry worker that 
effective service delivery and related savings can only be achieved when a 
suitably integrated approach is taken to care provision in hospitals and by 
general practitioners, on the one hand, and to community based services for 
injury prevention, rehabilitation and disability management, on the 
other.  The report of the review of the Human Services System in Redfern 
and Waterloo has identified 102 organisations providing 192 services in the 
area, with around 30 services focused solely on Redfern and 
Waterloo.  These services are funded by a combination of State, 
Commonwealth and Local Government resources with some contributions from 
non-government organizations.  Taking account of the limitations in 
establishing accurate funding totals for the review, it estimates there is 
in excess of $35-40 million currently allocated to human services for 
residents in Redfern and Waterloo (Morgan Disney & Associates, 2004, p. 
1).  It recommends restructuring of current services in the light of a 
proposed Human Services Delivery Plan for the area, which looks excellent 
to me.

The Review of National Competition Policy Reforms recommends that the 
Australian Government should amend its broadcasting policy to remove the 
restrictions on the number of commercial free-to-air TV stations, 
multi-channelling, and data-casting.  However, it recognises that 
competitive markets are not feasible in circumstances where significant 
externalities exist, for example in research and development.  Australia 
has the highest immigration rate in the developed world, and its general 
community health, HIV/AIDS, and crime related death rates are comparatively 
good, unlike the United States (Tiffen and Gittins, 2004). Australians can 
thank their politicians and expert researchers that, unlike in the United 
States, the market interest has not prevailed in the design of health care 
policy in this country.  Duckett (1997) has shown how the Australian 
Medicare design easily outperforms the United States market based health 
insurance system in terms of population access, equity and cost, although 
it is apparently behind on quality of service.  Effective health related 
communication is obviously central to effective health and human service 
development and delivery. Communication must therefore be understood in a 
national and regional industry development context.

The National Expert Advisory Group on Safety and Quality in Australian 
Health Care (1999) recommended that health ministers lead the way in 
promoting a safety and quality enhancement ethos throughout the whole 
health system.   They sought a national effort to improve the education and 
training of health providers and administrators in order to improve their 
readiness to work in a team environment.  They advised that curricula for 
continuous quality improvement should be included in all undergraduate, 
postgraduate and continuing education and training.  They specified that 
health ministers should support national actions for safety and quality 
related to strengthening the consumer voice; fostering clinical practice; 
learning from incidents, adverse events and complaints; development of 
frameworks for quality improvement and management; developing information 
systems to support quality; and education and training for quality 
improvement. Effective communication is central to this development process 
but it is also recognized that, particularly in rural areas, there are 
major shortages of key personnel, such as doctors and nurses (National 
Review of Nursing Education, 2002).  Meanwhile, elite universities such as 
Sydney University are abandoning nursing courses because they do not bring 
in enough money.  National communications policy must now be designed to 
meet industry need.

Identifying the appropriate role of national communications policy in order 
to support industry development and related education and research, 
generally requires consideration in appropriately coordinated national, 
regional and local community contexts. The market for Australian education 
to assist Asian development is likely to be enormous and information could 
be easily and effectively delivered by a combination of television and 
related institutional support.  However, comparatively little consideration 
has been given to tapping this potential.

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties report on the Australia /United 
States Free Trade Agreement (AUSFTA) stated that Australia has an existing 
requirement of a 55% local content quota on programming and 80% on 
advertising which applies to analogue and digital free to air commercial TV 
but not to multichanneling.  Subquotas for particular program formats (such 
as drama or documentary) may be applied within the 55% quota (p. 166).  The 
committee says it does not wish to see any lowering of current standards 
(p. 168).  However, there is recognition that the Australian market is too 
small to sustain a diverse range of program types and recoup production 
costs, which gives the American market a competitive price advantage that 
Australia will never overcome.   Coupled with this there is a ratchet 
mechanism which means, for example, that if a future Australian government 
reduced the local content requirement on local content for television to 
45%, a future government could not increase it back to 55%.   The ratchet 
mechanism applies only while Australia continues to have single channel, 
free to air TV (p. 173).  The Australia Council for the Arts appears to be 
issuing a warning when it states that:

  By 2010, virtually all entertainment and media is expected to be in 
digital formats, easily fed via satellites to cinemas and homes from 
sources outside Australia.  As a result, many of the existing broadcasting 
rules governing local content will become irrelevant and new forces will 
come into play. (p.188).

In the light of all the above developments it is recommended that 
Commonwealth, state and local governments act together fast to develop 
national communications and Australian media content policy which puts 
health and sustainable development at the forefront of all regional 
community consideration.  It is also recommended that the implementation of 
the recent report on the review of the Human Services System in Redfern and 
Waterloo should be undertaken in this general environment of government 
support for improved communications development.  Related communication, 
education and research development is discussed below.

NATIONAL COMMUNICATIONS POLICY TO NETWORK AUSTRALIA

The Commonwealth government is currently holding an inquiry into the 
provision of commercial television broadcast services after 2006 
specifically to decide whether a new commercial broadcaster should enter 
the arena.  Alastair Birch, the Executive Director of Australian Unified 
Services states in his submission that the current regulatory environment 
in Australia seeks to guarantee a vibrant and independent free-to-air 
television sector primarily through geographically-limited licences with 
restrictions on ownership.  In spite of this, just three networks control 
the programming of virtually all these supposedly independent commercial 
broadcasters.

Current policy seems to be preventing competitive innovation. Australia 
appears to need a more internationally competitive and cooperative 
approach. The following discussion and recommendations are designed to 
remedy this situation in an international environment where competition and 
related technological innovation must be highly valued by all.  This is 
necessary to extend, diversify, improve and cheapen all communication, and 
also to meet the needs of all regional and related community environments, 
especially the poorest and least healthy.  The situation of educational, 
non-profit and community based broadcasting should be considered in this 
Australian and international community and industry context.

It is recommended that the Commonwealth government should be responsible 
for the design of all standards for the regulation of all program content 
on Australian television and also for the standard of the services required 
of all broadcasters operating in this country.

Commonwealth broadcasting policy and industry design should encourage news, 
educational and related program content which is provided free or at the 
lowest possible cost to all Australians and their related communities.  The 
Commonwealth should also encourage competition and technological innovation 
by all broadcasters, in order to meet all Australian community goals for 
health and sustainable development effectively.

Accordingly, Australian governments should openly invite funding partners 
from existing broadcasters and from new entrants to the marketplace, in 
order to establish a new Australian national channel, openly designed in 
the interests of key stakeholders and the Australian community, in order to 
meet all national and related regional and individual goals as effectively 
as possible.  Non-profit, community broadcasters and related community 
service providers might join this national production partnership if they 
so wished.

The Australian Broadcasting Authority should administer Commonwealth 
broadcasting and content regulations using the stakeholder model of the NSW 
WorkCover statutory authority, which is funded by government and industry 
stakeholders.  This structure would help clarify national communications 
and related industry planning.  It would also assist establishment of high 
quality education, research and related communication for all Australian 
industries and communities. The role of the Department of Communications, 
Information Technology and the Arts should be considered in this context.