EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
STATUTORY RULE 1988 NO. 12 ISSUED BY THE AUTHORITY OF THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR TRANSPORT AND COMMUNICATIONS
Section 17 of the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Act 1946 (‘the Act’) provides that the Governor-General may make regulations, not inconsistent with the Act, prescribing all matters which, by the Act, are required or permitted to be prescribed or which are necessary or convenient to be prescribed for carrying out or giving effect to the Act.
Section 4 of the Act provides that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (‘the ABC’) shall broadcast Parliamentary proceedings over a national broadcasting station in each State capital city and Newcastle, and over such other national broadcasting stations as are prescribed.
Regulation 2 of the Parliamentary Proceedings Broadcasting Regulations (‘the Regulations’) previously provided that ABC radio stations 2CN Canberra and VLR were prescribed national broadcasting stations for the purposes of section 4 of the Act.
The ABC found that the listening audience for VLR was very small and, with the approval of the then Minister for Communications, the VLR service was terminated on 12 June 1987. The Minister for Transport and Communications agreed to an ABC request to amend the Regulations to enable the transfer of the broadcasting of Parliament in Canberra to the ABC’s Radio National Network. Radio station 2CN Canberra is not part of the Radio National Network.
The statutory rule substitutes a new regulation 2 to provide that ABC radio station 2CY Canberra is a prescribed national broadcasting station for the purposes of section 4 of the Act.