ADJOURNMENT

Senator ANTIC (South Australia) (20:55): Once upon a time, the role of the media was to uncover and disseminate information about the world around us. Journalists were important cogs in the political machine. They used to call themselves the fourth estate.

It's quite hard to imagine today. When you look at the media landscape in Australia, most outlets hire young journalists, who presumably all dreamed about being the next Woodward or the next Bernstein, but many really are now nothing more than marketing consultants or political activists. 'Why is that?' you say? Well, the old business model is failing.

Nobody's watching. Nobody's reading. Nobody's listening anymore.

As a result of that, the ad revenue has evaporated, so much so that governments are now bailing them out with your money. The Labor government has gifted the legacy media over $150 million and is now moving to allow them more through subsidies from big tech companies this very week. But I digress.

As I said, a large slice of the Australian mainstream media is no longer truly in the business of informing people. Much of it has become nothing more than a marketing exercise and a mouthpiece—a mouthpiece for government, a mouthpiece for the pharmaceutical industry and a mouthpiece for the military industrial complex and the real estate industry. Night after night, day after day, there are the same talking points, the same carefully managed narratives and the same refusal to ask hard or relevant questions.

When the government needs cover, they provide it. When big pharma needs cover, they provide it. When the property industry wants a leg-up, we all of a sudden start reading stories about a famous person selling their house.

How many negative stories do you ever hear or read about the pharmaceutical industry? Not many. The younger generation has already worked this out.

According to the University of Canberra's Digital news report: Australia 2026, 60 per cent of Australians aged between 18 and 24 have never actually read a newspaper for news, 53 per cent have never listened to the radio for news and one in four has never turned on the television for news. They're not tuning in; they've already switched off. We probably should spare a thought for journalists who have spent years studying and training for a career in this industry.

They all now have a HECS debt and a career with a lifespan of about three years before AI takes their job. I might sound sympathetic, but, quite honestly, I'm not really, and nor will I ever really notice. I could pull the TV aerial out of the socket and I wouldn't know.

The real work of informing Australians is moving to independent platforms—to people willing to ask the questions the legacy media outlets are not allowed to answer. The era of the unchallenged media gatekeeper is ending and not a moment too soon. So bye-bye, legacy media!

That's what you get for boring us with your ads, your left-wing bias and your propaganda for so long. You won't be missed!