[Please note that proposed additions/substitutions are in bold underline. Proposed deletions are in strikethrough below.]
Rationale: Additions to give this clause greater context.
Rationale: An addition to incorporate corporatisation, as it is possible for state owned entities to be corporations being run on behalf of the government; likewise it is possible for organisations to be privately owned, but not a corporation (such as a not-for-profit). It needs to be clear, with respect to public broadcasters, that Socialist Alliance opposes both the privatisation and corporatisation of public broadcasters.
Rationale: Small amendment on the basis of technicality to this clause to specifically mention political independence. Being a public broadcaster, it technically isn’t possible for it to be independent but it can and should report without the interference of political motives.
Rationale: Amended to omit the part regarding ABC Comedy and SBS Viceland, as this is addressed in amendments below. This is further amended to give context and reasoning.
Rationale: Clause omitted. This is addressed further down.
Rationale: New clause to address the ABC Comedy and SBS Viceland, proposing that these be repurposed (and in the case of ABC Comedy, renamed) to showcase more niche productions rather than serving commercial interests and market demand.
Rationale: New clause to flesh out the question of community, multicultural and non-commercial broadcasting. This proposes that the ABC and SBS should have channels under their banners that are dedicated to the broadcasting of community produced content and multicultural content.
Rationale: This clause has been omitted due to the addition of the two clauses below, which fleshes this out and gives more specific demands.
Rationale: A “rule of three” for media ownership is a specific demand that can address the concentration of media ownership in the hands of a few rich oligarchs. Specifically, this clause argues that no one media company or individual:
While some specific areas may inadvertently have a single commercial media company covering their news at all levels, the diversity of media overall would be a benefit for all. Furthermore, ABC bureaus at the local level as stipulated in clause 1 above will aid in keeping a diverse media landscape, even in these areas.
Rationale: Specifically relevant for those who don’t have access to television or internet.
Rationale: Omitted. The clause below clashes with this clause.
Note: No amendment.
Rationale: Small amendment to specify a specific demand. The original version of this clause was too broad, hence the addition of “formal election periods”.
All parties and candidates, no matter their ideology, should be given the opportunity to put forward their ideas (or make fools of themselves, whatever it may be) during formal election periods, in an equal field with all other parties and candidates, who are standing for election.
Particularly abhorrent content would be pursued in accordance to clause 15 below.
In response to suggestions that “right wing parties get equal advertising” under this clause, absolutely they should. Not only does the “give them rope” principle apply; under this clause, left-wing parties are given the opportunity to call them out and out forward real solutions for working-class people.
Rationale: Clause omitted. This is fleshed out in the clause below.
Rationale: ACMA is the body for establishing codes of practice to ensure that media and communications works for all Australians. Thus, the scope of ACMA should be extended to include cracking down on race hate, vilification and incitement of hate as well as giving an easy mechanism for people to make complaints of media misconduct, should they feel the need to do so, with proper resourcing for these complaints to be actioned in a timely fashion.
Rationale: Clause omitted as it has been made redundant by the ABC/SBS clauses above.
Rationale: This has been fleshed out to give this clause greater context, as well as to combine this clause with the one below.
Rationale: Omitted. This has been incorporated into the clause above.
Rationale: A new clause and to also incorporate cultural events.
Rationale: A new clause to stipulate that major world and Australian sporting and cultural events be made available for viewing for all via the ABC and SBS (instead of commercial television which clashes with ending the commercialisation of these events).
Rationale: Clause omitted due to the addition of the two clauses above.
Rationale: Reworded the clause relating to the nationalisation of telecommunications companies to specifically demand the renationalisation of Telstra and to properly resource it to provide access to inexpensive and high-quality telecommunications services to all.
Telstra was originally a public entity and currently owns most of the infrastructure.
Note: No change to this clause apart from “delivering” to “deliver” to make it read more like a demand.
Rationale: Small addition to broaden the scope of this clause. Not only to ensure AusPost remains in public hands, but to ensure it is properly resourced to provide an efficient service.
Rationale: Amended the clause around copyright to ensure clarity. Patenting is used by corporations to hoard innovations and for competitive advantage, not copyright, hence the amendment.
Rationale: New clause to address copyright specifically. Currently, copyright automatically applies to work for the life of the creator, plus 70 years. As such, reducing the amount of time work is copyrighted for to 30 years after creation strikes a good balance between ownership of an original piece of work and ensuring the creation of a vibrant public domain that others can access and draw ideas from without fear of being stung for copyright violations for copying work that was created several decades ago.
Rationale: Amended for clarification, as it is already very hard for companies to sue for defamation. However, it is currently very easy for heads of companies, public figures and politicians to sue for defamation if those people are named.
Rationale: The introduction of R18+ ratings for video games has largely eliminated the problems faced in terms of games marketed to adults being refused classification (or censored) for not complying with what at 15 year old teenager should be viewing.
As such, the refused classification rating is reserved for the most abhorrent of content that is too intense for even the R18+ classification, and the R18+ classification allows for some rather detailed and gruesome stuff.
Issues still lie with the detail of the guidelines, however. The “no drug use for incentives or rewards” requirement for the R18+ rating for video games, for example, has caught out a few recent video games that have been refused classification on this basis. Hence, there is scope for the R18+ classification guidelines to be relaxed further.
With that being said, the X18+ rating (which covers non-simulated sexual activity and pornographic content) should be incorporated into the R18+ rating for all multimedia (which naturally wouldn’t apply to video games as no sexual activity if present in a video game can possibly be non-simulated).
In response to the suggestion by some comrades that some content should be censored - it is not the role of a Socialist party to argue for the censorship of multimedia content on moral grounds.
Rationale: Amended to more broadly call for an Australian Bill of Rights that explicitly safeguards digital rights and online privacy, among other things.
Rationale: No amendment, apart from the addition of “the privacy of individuals” at the end.
END
