Aus pols have “unfettered” control over TV

Stay Tuned For Red Underpants

22nd October, 2012 – Occasionally, usually by accident (sometimes if they think nobody is listening) politicians say what they really believe.

”I have unfettered legal power,” Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told an obscure conference in New York in September. ”If I say to everyone in this room, ‘If you want to bid in our spectrum auction you’d better wear red underpants on your head’, I’ve got some news for you. You’ll be wearing them on your head.”

Conroy was clearly having a bit of fun. But he’s right. He has complete, arbitrary and absolute control over who broadcasts on the airwaves and the circumstances in which they broadcast, and that control has been disastrous for television consumers.

Read more at the Institute of Public Affairs