The spotlight is firmly on the beleaguered board of Hawkesbury Radio – threatened with action by the NSW Department of Fair Trading (DOFT) last month – and now being investigated by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) over an apparent failure to process new member applications.
The investigation comes at the same time as the radio station’s suitability to hold its broadcasting licence is routinely being examined by ACMA, with a deadline of October 3.
Alongside the continuing battle for access to the members’ register, 10 people who are calling themselves Friends of 89.9FM have now lodged an official complaint with ACMA about the apparent failure of the station to respond to their applications for membership since they were lodged in October and November of last year, along with membership fees of nearly $50 each.
In a letter dated February 15, 2012, ACMA has confirmed it is investigating, saying “the licensee [Hawkes-bury Radio] has been asked to provide the ACMA with a response regarding its compliance with the relevant provisions of the Act”, in this case the Broadcasting Services Act which says each community radio station should encourage members of the community to join their community station.
Hawkesbury Radio chairman and Hawkesbury independent councillor, Paul Rasmussen, has told the Gazette the hold-up in processing member applications was only down to replacing old forms with new ones that asked potential members if they minded their addresses being available to other members.
“We have been busy consulting with our members asking them to inform the station as to their consent or otherwise to the release of their private information including home/residential addresses,”
Mr Rasmussen said.
“That process is required by the Privacy Act 1988 and has taken time as we have a few hundred members to ‘snail’ mail to and then wait for their written reply. This process has now been completed by a band of very hard-working volunteers and part of the process was to revamp our previous membership form which omitted to ask for consent from members when they completed the form”.
Mr Rasmussen and the board have previously been told by the Department of Fair Trading that the Co-operatives Act, which Hawkesbury Radio operates under, requires the members’ register to be open for inspection and that that trumped the Privacy Act, which is a general act.
On the radio station’s website as the Gazette went to press it said, “there has been a lot of coverage in the local press about this issue, and whether or not the Board was denying legitimate access to the membership register. As we have stated repeatedly, we have never denied access to the membership register.”
Back in August 2011, Ray Medina, who was then the radio station’s board member responsible for marketing, said he asked for access to the register to start a membership drive. Now, seven months later he said he still has not been given access to the list.
Disgruntled presenters, members and board director Mr Medina are still fighting for access to the register which Mr Rasmussen has previously told the Gazette contained the details of about 280 members, a number ACMA sees as appropriate for a station with the broadcasting reach of Hawkesbury Radio.
Back in 2006 when the station last applied for licence renewal – a process which takes place every five years – the station said it had 120 members.
ACMA then sent a letter to chairman Rasmussen saying “further questions have arisen as a result of the responses you provided”. They included a query about why there were only 120 members, ACMA saying they believed the average number of financial members of such a community radio service should be about 277.
Mr Rasmussen has since told the Gazette, in an earlier story we ran, that there were around 280 members.
Mr Medina, still a board director at Hawkesbury Radio, said on Tuesday “I have spoken to DOFT and they were led to believe that the station had now made the register available. I put them straight today and they asked me to put in another complaint but you have to ask how many complaints do they have to receive before they actually chase up if it is being done or not? It’s been seven months since I first asked for access to the register.”
The radio station’s website says “the members who wanted to see the list were advised on Thursday 9 February that they could make a time with the office to see the register. At the time of writing this, more than a week later on 17 February, no-one has made such an appointment”.
Hawkesbury Radio presenter John Bryant says he has officially asked on 22 separate occasions to view the members’ register, a claim Mr Rasmussen says is not true.
“Mr Bryant was informed by me on Thursday 9 February 2012, in writing, to make an appointment with the Secretary to facilitate his viewing of the membership register,” Mr Rasmussen said. “His reply to me was that my suggestion that he make an appointment with the Secretary was totally unacceptable.”
What Mr Bryant said in his email was “your suggestion that I make an appointment ‘the week after next’ is totally unacceptable. The Act [Co-op Act] and [Hawkesbury Radio] Constitution provide that the Register may be viewed and copied at any time, without appointment, during office hours. I therefore choose to view and copy the register tomorrow, February 10, a day when the office is always attended.”
Since then, Mr Bryant said the office has not been attended, despite it always being staffed during the previous 140 weeks on a Friday.
The Gazette has seen copies of emails sent since August 23, 2011 by Mr Bryant to Mr Rasmussen and the board requesting access to the register, the latest this Monday.
Mr Bryant, the driving force behind what he sees as a battle for transparency, believes there are only around 60 to 80 members. If that were proved to be true it would raise serious questions with ACMA at a time when the station’s licence renewal is up once again for review.
Mr Rasmussen said the only hold-up with new member applications was down to the replacement of the forms with the new wording.
Mr Bryant, who had initially reported the board to the NSW Minister for Fair Trading, sent a further email this week to Mr Rasmussen and board members saying, “since the directors of Hawkesbury Radio have obstructed my lawful access to the members register for over five months, and ignored my many requests, I now request that you email me a copy of the Members Register to this email address by return email”.
As the Gazette went to press on Tuesday morning, Mr Bryant had still not had a reply to his email and had not received access to the members’ list.
A spokesman for the ACMA confirmed to the Gazette that the investigation was ongoing and would be completed and taken into account as the broadcasting licence came up for renewal in October.
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