Michelle Rowland may be the country’s Communications Minister, but she is having a hell of a time communicating her need for Foxtel’s 24-hour news and current affairs coverage to Parliament House officials.
This is according to a quite hilarious story by The Australian’s Margin Call, which notes that Rowland moved into her Blacktown office in 2020, only to find there was no Foxtel satellite dish on top of the building.
“A round of furious email correspondence” followed between Rowland’s people and the Department of Parliamentary Services, who “snubbed Rowland’s request for the department to fund a dish on the roof and sent a glowering response back to her people noting that it was all outside their ambit of responsibility,” according to the column.
Foxtel offered an internet-based replacement, but Rowland’s electorate office uses a secure Wi-Fi that doesn’t allow this.
Given Rowland is responsible for making decisions that directly impact Foxtel and the wider television and media landscape, this seems an untenable position.
