An open letter to Senator Barnaby Joyce and Senator Steven Fielding:

Dear Senators,

Your “democracy moment” has arrived. How you vote on the government’s legislation to dismantle the cross-media rules over the coming days will determine whether the power of a handful of unelected media owners to influence the Australian debate will be greatly increased — or whether media owners already have enough power and influence in the western country with the greatest concentration of media ownership.

As you weigh up that decision, your first consideration will properly be: how does this affect my constituents? At a local level, in their communities, as they live their lives, as their views and ideas are shaped by the undoubted influence of the media they consume, will this be good for them?

In thinking about that personal issue, Senator Joyce, please think about the current state of the “media of influence” in your home state of Queensland. A state where one media company owns the only statewide daily newspaper (870,000 readers), the only statewide Sunday newspaper (1,493,000 readers), almost all the suburban newspapers in Brisbane (850,000 readers), and the daily newspapers in the state’s big regional markets of the Gold Coast, Townsville and Cairns (274,000 readers). Your vote to allow dilution of cross-media rules will mean that, in addition to their existing audience of 3,487,000 readers, the same company will have the potential to own a statewide television network as well. How will that enhance the lives and rights of your constituents?

And in thinking about your constituents, Senator Fielding, please think about how watering down the cross-media rules will impact on their lives and minds. Think about how, if the changes are voted through, Australia’s biggest media company – which is also Australia’s biggest casino company and the publisher of a stable of soft-p-rn magazines – will be able to grow even bigger in the media and may even be able to control the country’s leading broadsheet newspapers. How will that enhance the lives and rights of your constituents?

Senators, your “democracy moment” has arrived. And ours, too.