It is well known that Australia has one of the highest concentrations of media ownership in the world. One is entitled to ask why this matters. The answers are several; some universal and others particular to the Australian setting. It is generally thought that liberal, 'fourth estate' standards of journalistic independence and diversity of opinion are essential conditions for both informed citizenship and freedom of speech and hence for the proper functioning of liberal democracy. Judged by those standards Australia compares poorly with most other developed OECD nations; especially those nations that are normally assumed to characterise the Liberal model (Hallin and Mancini 2004).