Taken from the Greens press release dated 9/11/2007

The Greens will provide the community broadcasting sector with an additional $1 million a year, according to Greens lead Senate candidate for Queensland, Larissa Waters.

“Community broadcasting is needed now more than ever given the decline in the diversity of media ownership and the decline of local and regional newspapers,” said Ms Waters.

“Here in Brisbane, community radio stations like 4ZZZ and Switch and community TV station Channel 31 have a huge cult following - but they are being starved of funding by the Howard government.

“While the number of community broadcasters has increased by 54 per cent in 10 years, Commonwealth funding has only increased by 31 per cent. The result has been an average 18 per cent reduction in the funding of each service, or less than $2 million a year for the entire sector.

“The Greens will provide the community broadcasting sector with an extra

$1 million in additional funds per year by requiring 0.5 per cent of all government advertising, currently more than $200 million a year, to be spent on community radio and television stations.

“The Greens also support the recommendations of the recent House of Representatives Report to increase core funding to the community broadcasting sector by $10 million, and provide $6 million to meet the cost of digital conversion.

“The Australian community broadcasting sector is recognised internationally as one of the most successful examples of ‘grassroots’ media.

“An extra $1 million a year will help community broadcasters provide more quality news, information, cultural content and entertainment to their communities,” Ms Waters concluded.

A copy of the Greens policy initiative Supporting Community Broadcasting can be downloaded here.