Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Communication policy
parts of the radiofrequency spectrum known as the ‘broadcasting services bands’
without a licence. One form of licence permits holders to transmit ‘community
broadcasting services’. These are only available to non-profit corporations, who can
accept revenue from sponsorship but not advertising. Another example is the ‘class
licence’ that authorises the use of mobile and cellular telephone handsets. Each
device does not need its own licence: instead, manufacturers have to ensure their
handsets comply with the conditions of the single, standing licence for that class.
Some laws are designed to influence behaviour indirectly by creating markets
or rules that participants must observe. In communications, two crucial examples
are the markets for radiofrequency spectrum and intellectual property. The laws
about spectrum empower the minister and the regulator, the Australian Communications
and Media Authority (ACMA) to decide who gets to use spectrum,
for how long, how much they pay, the technical conditions and whether or not
they can trade their rights. Intellectual property is created by law: without statutes
that give rights to those who create copyright works, patentable inventions and
protected designs, these forms of intangible property would not exist at all. Within
bodies of law that apply across the whole economy, special rules are sometimes
written for particular industries thought to have unique characteristics. Australia
has a national ‘access regime’ allowing third parties to seek access to ports, airports,
railway tracks and sewerage pipes, 28 as well as an ‘industry-specific’ access regime
for telecommunications, designed to promote easy interconnection, competition,
and efficient use and investment in fixed and mobile networks. 29 In this way,
‘mobile virtual network operators’ can offer services over other telcos’ networks
without having to build their own.
Money
Money can be spent or collected to encourage or discourage behaviour. Hundreds
of millions of dollars have been spent since the late 1960s supporting Australians
to make and distribute films, TV programs and other forms of audiovisual content
that governments thought would not be produced otherwise. Concerned about the
decline of mainstream news media, the federal government established a Regional
and Small Publishers Innovation Fund in 2018 to assist ‘innovative and transformative’
public interest journalism projects ‘with an Australian perspective’:
money is being given to projects designed to help publishers increase revenue,
reduce costs or broaden audiences through new digital applications. Government
money need not be provided by direct expenditure from the budget; it can also be
provided by offering concessions on taxes that would otherwise be due. Most of
28 Part IIIA of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth).
29 Part XIC of the Competition and Consumer Act 2010. Part XIB sets out further
telecommunications-specific rules about anti-competitive conduct and record-keeping by
telcos.
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