The joint-owners of Mildura Digital Television Pty Ltd should switch the 10, 10Bold and 10Peach signals back on and activate Sky News Regional in Mildura if the Commercial Broadcast Tax is repealed, Member for Mallee Dr Anne Webster said today.

“WIN and SevenWest said before 30 June they were switching off the signal due to the disproportionate regional impost of the Commercial Broadcasting Tax (CBT). The Coalition have pledged to repeal the tax, which was only ever meant to be a short-term measure.  The signal was switched off on 30 June but the Coalition has given the region hope, pledging to repeal the CBT.

“Mildura residents have suffered the indignity of being the first in Australia to switch off a digital TV signal, in Ten and its affiliates Bold and Peach. Worse still, Mildura residents are the largest regional centre in the nation without Sky News Regional. Yet again, whether it is health care, roads, government services or television content, Mildura residents are treated like second-class citizens.”

“I challenge WIN’s CEO Andrew Lancaster to commit to reinstating 10 services and putting Sky News Regional on in Mildura if the Federal Government abolishes the Broadcasting Tax.

“Our estimates are that a CBT repeal will bring WIN and SevenWest around $10-$12 million a year, more than the business cost of switching on 10 and Sky content in Mildura.

Shadow Minister for Communications David Coleman MP told Parliament earlier this month: “This is a tax charged by government to broadcasters and it raises about $46 million a year. Because it’s charged based on how much of the airwaves you use … The CEOs wrote to the Prime Minister in good faith and said: ‘We don’t want to close Mildura and we don’t want to close other regional broadcasters. What we need is a three-year moratorium on that commercial broadcasting tax.’”

Dr Webster said the Albanese Labor Government had failed Mildura and Sunraysia residents by instead proposing a costly VAST satellite workaround (costing around $800 per household) to keep receiving Ten services, when the moratorium networks called for, or the CBT repeal the Coalition has promised, would have kept the signal on.

“This is the same Labor Party that proudly sent former Communications Minister Stephen Conroy to strut the deck of the PS Mundoo in Mildura to hail the region as the first in the nation to switch on digital television. The signal has been switched off on Labor’s watch and Minister Rowland should commit to CBT relief to add impetus to WIN to switch services back on in Sunraysia.”

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