The Shadow Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has spoken to SBS Punjabi about many matters pertaining to her current and former portfolio as Shadow Minister for Citizenship and Multiculturalism.
She has served as a Member for Greenway since 2010, a constituency which boasts of a large subcontinental demographic, including a high density of Punjabi residents.
Ms Rowland spoke passionately about supporting public interest journalism, also raising concerns about hate and fake news being proliferated through social media.
"Its a conundrum that governments find themselves in because rules that apply to traditional or legacy media don’t apply to online platforms like Google or Facebook. It's a great challenge for not just regulators but journalists as well and public interest journalism is now greatly challenged."
"People must be able to differentiate between fake news and good journalism – we should promote public interest journalism and increase media literacy of people so they question what they’re reading."
Addressing the raids on ABC earlier this year, Ms Rowland said, "they were meant to intimidate journalists and whistleblowers," adding, "journalists should be allowed to do their jobs."
Giving the example of the strong stand that Australia took in the case of detained journalist Peter Greste, Ms Rowland said the same core principles must be upheld within Australia to protect local journalists.
When asked about broadband affordability and the fact that Australia has ranked last among 36 OECD countries on price of entry-level broadband, she said, "We have a serious problem with infrastructure which has not kept pace with the needs of consumers."
"We need to lift our game in digital inclusion. It’s a problem for the economy when whole sections of people miss out. The digital divide between people who have fibre and copper connections is unacceptable."
The Shadow Communications Minister also attended a celebration in parliament last week, to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. In the course of this interview, she also gave a special message to the Sikh community in the context of this landmark celebration.
Ms Rowland also addressed issues relating to permanent residency, citizenship and international education in this interview, which can be heard by clicking on the audio link above.
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