Media Release - 27 March 2023 No Voice Without Pictures – urgent action needed to address the crisis facing

That’s the blunt message representatives of Imparja, the Indigenous-owned not-for-profit broadcaster delivering commercial television services to the most remote areas of the country, will deliver today to government MPs. [...] Imparja Television CEO Mr Alistair Feehan pleaded with the Albanese Government to take urgent action to address the remote broadcasting crisis which continues to cut off remote Indigenous Australians from national and international news, views and entertainment. [...] ‘Instead of being included in a community debate about the need for Indigenous voices to be heard by decision-makers, remote Indigenous Australians will be out of the loop,’ Feehan said. [...] ‘It’s a bitter irony that the very people the voice is designed to assist won’t have a clue what’s going on in Canberra.’ Recent work by the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)1 has revealed that up to 80 percent of Indigenous households have no working free television service due to damaged cabling or dishes and defunct set top boxes. [...] A demonstration of good faith with Indigenous communities would be if we left Canberra this week with a firm commitment to a plan for the restoration of basic remote television services and a regular program of equipment repair and maintenance.