Community Broadcasting Sector Sustainability Review

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The department is seeking feedback on the sustainability of the community broadcasting sector, including funding, administration and regulation for the Community Broadcasting Program and Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Program.

Why we want your input

The Australian Government recognises the valuable service provided by the community broadcasting sector.

Community broadcasting contributes to the diversity of the broadcasting sector, and serves local communities and interest groups, with content distinct from commercial, subscription or national broadcasters.

The views and ideas of the sector and the communities they serve are valuable to help inform reform options for the Australian Government’s consideration.

How you can voice your opinion

Workshops
Please email us at communitybroadcasting@infrastructure.gov.au to attend one of the below stakeholder consultation workshops.

Submissions
Please read the discussion paper and upload your submission via the Have Your Say button below, or email your submission to communitybroadcasting@infrastructure.gov.au. The submissions period closes on Friday, 30 August 2024 at 5.00pm AEST.

What will be the outcome of this consultation?

Your submission will help to inform reform options to ensure a sustainable future for the Community Broadcasting Program and Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Program.

The Issue

Community broadcasting services operate at the heart of local communities, with staff and volunteers working to deliver local news, tell local stories, and provide a platform for diverse voices and Australian music that is essential to a well-informed and inclusive society.

As part of the 2022 Federal Budget, the Australian Government committed to providing vital support for community broadcasting. This included working with the sector to identify a sustainable funding basis for the future. As a result, the government announced a two-phase Community Broadcasting Program (CBP) Evaluation and Sustainability Review.

Phase 1 commenced in March 2023 with an independent evaluation of the CBP. The evaluation found that while the CBP is mostly effective and has a range of positive impacts, it is only partially achieving its objectives. There are opportunities to increase sector capacity, resilience and self-sufficiency.

Phase 2 seeks to identify reform options by gathering views and ideas on funding, administration and legislative environments for the CBP and the Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Program. As part of Phase 2, we're seeking your views on the community broadcasting sector to inform options for government consideration.

Relevant information

Participate

21 Jun 2024 09:00 AEST

30 Aug 2024 17:00 AEST

Closed

Workshops

Please contact the Community Broadcasting team at communitybroadcasting@infrastructure.gov.au if you would like to attend one of the below consultations workshops. To ensure all attendees get a chance to share their views, we ask that you only send one person from your service.

Location or station type	Date	Time	Type	Download summary
Darwin	Friday, 21 June 2024	2:00pm–4:00pm ACST	Face-to-face	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Darwin
Melbourne	Tuesday, 2 July 2024	2:30pm–4:30pm AEST	Face-to-face	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Melbourne
Sydney	Wednesday, 10 July 2024	10:00am–12:00pm AEST	Face-to-face	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Sydney
Brisbane	Thursday, 18 July 2024	10:00am–12:00pm AEST	Face-to-face	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Brisbane
Perth	Monday, 22 July 2024	12:00pm–2:00pm AWST	Virtual	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Perth and regional Western Australia
Adelaide	Monday, 29 July 2024	10:00am–12:00pm ACST	Virtual	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Adelaide and regional South Australia
Sector peak roundtable	Thursday, 1 August 2024	1:00pm-2:30pm AEST	Virtual	Summary of discussion—Sector peak roundtable
Other metropolitan stations	Tuesday, 6 August 2024	2:00pm–4:00pm AEST	Virtual	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Other metropolitan locations
Regional stations	Wednesday, 14 August 2024	9:00am–11:00am AEST	Virtual	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Regional—14 August 2024
Regional stations	Thursday, 15 August 2024	2:00pm–4:00pm AEST	Virtual	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Regional
Rural/remote stations	Tuesday, 20 August 2024	2:00pm–4:00pm AEST	Virtual	Summary of stakeholder discussion—Rural and remote

Submissions

We invite you to tell us your views on this topic.

Please include:

contact name
organisation name, if applicable
contact details, including telephone number, postal and email addresses
confirmation whether or not your submission can be made public—published—or kept confidential.

All submissions to be made public need to meet the Digital Service Standard for accessibility. Any submission that does not meet this standard may be modified before being made public.

If your submission is to be made public, please ensure you do not include any personal information that you don't want to be published.

If your submission is confidential, please ensure each page of the submission is marked as confidential.

Please click on the 'Have your say now' button below to upload your submission.

This consultation is closed.

Australian Privacy Principle 5 Notice

Community broadcasting sector sustainability review

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (the department) is collecting information for the purposes of a review of the sustainability of community broadcasting sector, in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988.

The department will use this information to inform consideration of issues associated with the community broadcasting sector sustainability review and will store this information securely. It may be used by the department to make further contact with you about the review.

The department will not disclose information to third parties, except in the circumstances outlined below.

Submissions, in part or full, including the name of the author may be published on the department's website unless the submission is confidential. Confidential submissions (including the author's name) will not be published. Private addresses and contact details will not be published or disclosed to any third parties unless required by law.

Submissions will only be treated as confidential if they are expressly stated to be confidential. Automatically generated confidentiality statements or disclaimers appended to an email do not suffice for this purpose. If you wish you make a confidential submission, you should indicate this by ensuring your submission is marked confidential.

Confidential submissions will be kept securely and will only be disclosed in the following circumstances:

in response to a request by a Commonwealth Minister
where required by a House or a Committee of the Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia
where required by law.

The department may also disclose confidential submissions within the Commonwealth of Australia, including with other Commonwealth agencies, where necessary in the public interest.

Please note that in order to protect the personal privacy of individuals in accordance with the Privacy Act any submissions containing sensitive information, personal information or information which may reasonably be used to identify a person or group of people may not be published, even if not marked as confidential.

The department's privacy policy contains information regarding complaint handling processes and how to access and/or seek correction of personal information held by the department and contact details for the Privacy Officer.