Australian Politics and Policy - Senior, 2019a

Australian Politics and Policy
commercial stations, and to track the take-up of digital receivers and assist lowincome
consumers; and legislative changes were made to remove some of the
original constraints and impositions on broadcasters and others. Analogue TV
transmissions were eventually switched off progressively from 2010 to 2013 and
vacated spectrum was reallocated. Total revenue from the sale of that ‘digital
dividend’ spectrum was $3.7 billion in 2018/19 dollars, $1.3 billion more than
the total government expenditure outlaid to make the whole project happen. The
experience provided at least three lessons for communications policy. It showed
that a long-term government policy project could be undertaken, and achieve its
major objectives, despite considerable disagreement over the detail. It also showed
how much past policy decisions (in this case, about spectrum allocation) shape
future possibilities, and the potential benefits and conceptual difficulties of early
cost–benefit analysis, which was done in some countries but not Australia. 37
These two examples demonstrate both the possibilities and the limits to radical
policy action. Established institutions, infrastructure and people exert profound
influence over policy decisions, especially through often long-running processes of
transition from the old to the new.
Federal, state, local and international interactions
Communications is generally seen as a federal government responsibility in
Australia. Using its constitutional power to make laws about ‘postal, telegraphic,
telephonic, and other like services’, 38 the body of law that began in 1901 with
post, telegraphs and telephones soon expanded to cover wireless telegraphy. Radio
broadcasting was initially regulated as a form of wireless in the 1920s and 1930s
before specific legislation was passed, first to create the Australian Broadcasting
Commission in 1932 and then to regulate radio and later television broadcasting as
awhole.HighCourtcasesconfirmedthattheconstitutionalpowerencompassed
these novel forms of communication, while leaving some doubt about pre-existing
forms, especially printed media. 39
Three principal statutes now cover telecommunications, radiocommunications
(including the allocation of spectrum for mobile telephony and broadband) and
broadcasting services. The power has also been used to make other federal laws; for
example, prohibiting tobacco advertising from the 1970s, and to restrict interactive
gambling from the early 2000s. The Constitution also empowers the Commonwealth
to make laws about intellectual property, which it began to do in 1905 when
the first copyright legislation was passed. 40 By ‘covering the field’ in these areas, the
37 Given 2018.
38 Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900 (Cth), section 51(v).
39 See La Nauze 1968.
40 Section 51(xviii) of the Constitution covers ‘copyrights, patents of inventions and designs, and
trade marks’.
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