Legislation is easy: Ban foreign ownership of Australian media

... The things that you're liable
To read in the bible
It ain't necessarily so ...

'It Ain't Necessarily So', George Gershwin ('Porgy & Bess', 1935)

This is what the Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr said during question time yesterday [13/5/10]:

Senator CARR—I thank Senator Mason for the question. I always enjoy a question from Senator Mason. He has had to wait in the queue for some time. Senators opposite have obviously been pushing ahead of him. The simple fact of life is that the Building the Education Revolution is a program of $16.2 billion which has been supporting jobs in local communities right around Australia—24,000 projects around Australia. We have seen 9,000 schools around Australia enjoy considerable benefit from this program. We have seen a full and thorough investigation into the claims that have been made.

Senator Mason, I have given you this advice on many occasions: the Australian is not the best source of advice that you could find. What you should do is go to the ANAO for advice on these questions. The ANAO have shown that the department of education’s governance arrangements have ensured that the BER and P21 are delivering improved education facilities to almost all primary schools in Australia. [emphasis mine]

All manner of bills and amendments to legislation were passed in Parliament yesterday - from ASIO to immigration and FOI amendments.

If our politicians are concerned about the quality of a publication run by a corporation that runs most of the newspapers in this country as trash tabloid/right wing propaganda sheets, they should do the right thing for Australia's democracy and ban foreign ownership.

Easy.