Well, the Senate sitting is finished for the week and will sit again Monday morning for another four days. As the Media Reform Bill was due to be debated last Monday many may be asking what happened!
As with all things where politicians and legislation are involved things very rarely go to schedule. It may not have happened this week as many of us had hoped but I am quietly confident that a deal will be done. Hopefully next week but probably more likely when the Senate sits in June.
It appears that the Government is a lot closer to getting One Nation and the Xenophon Party on side but a few adjustments will be required before the bill will be passed.
One Nation has said that they want to see limits placed on foreign ownership of local media while the Xenophon Party wants to see measures introduced to address Facebook and Google's market power in the online advertising market. Neither amendments are major changes to the original bill but may take a while to iron out and the usual checks made for any unforeseen repercussions.
Just as a side note, Pauline Hanson copt a complete flogging this week from the Labor Senators over her standing with the Coalition on the changes to the Family tax benefit payments bill. She gave a blasting return to the Labor Senators to such an extreme that I believe that a big rift has now formed between the two. This now means that in the future where she is undecided she is now much more likely to side with the Coalition and in turn - the Media Reform Bill.
PRT Price at posting:
30.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
