Helen Coonan

Helen Lloyd Coonan (born 29 October 1947) is a former Australian politician who was a Senator for New South Wales from 1996 to 2011, representing the Liberal Party. She was a minister in the Howard government, serving as Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer from 2001 to 2004 and then as Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts from 2004 to 2007.

Coonan was born in Mangoplah, New South Wales, and attended the Mount Erin convent Catholic boarding school in Wagga Wagga. She later attended the University of Sydney, where she gained a law degree. She was a barrister and solicitor before entering politics. She was chair of the board of governors of the Law Foundation of New South Wales (1991–92). ^{[citation needed]}

In 1996, Coonan was elected to the federal Senate as a Liberal senator for New South Wales. She was re-elected in 2001 and appointed Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer (2001–04), making her the first woman to hold an Australian Treasury portfolio since Federation.

As Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, Coonan appointed David R Vos as the first Inspector-General of Taxation during August 2003; following from the passage of the Inspector-General of Taxation Bill 2002 and providing an adviser to government in the interests of taxpayers.

Coonan was appointed Minister for Communications, Information Technology and the Arts, with a seat in the Cabinet, in July 2004. Her portfolio was responsible for overseeing the Australian broadcasting and telecommunications industries as well as the ICT sector and Australia Post. Coonan was also the senior minister responsible for the arts. She became Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate in January 2006, and was the first female in the Coalition Leadership team remaining in that role until the coalition was defeated at the polls on 24 November 2007.

In July 2004, Australia was in a transitional phase: digital television was broadcast in parallel to the old analogue television signals. The stated plan was full handover to digital by 2008 and shutdown of all analogue television broadcast.

In September 2005, Coonan announced a review of the digital television situation. It was noted that the government had spent $1 billion supporting the change from analogue TV to digital TV. The plan to switch off analogue TV by 2008 in metropolitan areas and by 2011 in regional markets was regarded as unlikely to be workable because the take-up of digital receivers had been poor.

The minister supervised the creation of Digital Australia, a new federally funded government body for coordinating the transition to digital television. Andrew Townend (former COO of Digital UK) was appointed executive director in 2007.