Where in their charter does it say that it is one of their duties not to be competitive with other media?
The only mention in the charter (it's really short) is:
> (2) In the provision by the Corporation of its broadcasting services within Australia:
>
>(a) the Corporation shall take account of:
>
>(i) the broadcasting services provided by the commercial and community sectors of the Australian broadcasting system;
It's a Murdoch/Nine/7West continuous whinge that ABC/SBS compete "unfairly", yet when it comes to actual community needs (eg emergency broadcasting, rural and regional reporting etc), they do squat in return for their spectrum and cable licenses.
It's not that the charter says "you cannot be competitive with other media", it's that their charter doesn't say "you should be competitive with private media". The ABC and SBS exist to provide both information and entertainment with a specific focus -- not to try to be the most highly-rated channel in Australia. As a result, the ABC or SBS using the new powers under the proposed legislation wouldn't fall under their charter -- because the purpose of the legislation is to rectify an (alleged) power imbalance in the agreements between news companies and digital media.
On balance (reading my comment again), I should probably have phrased it as "it is not their duty to compete with privately-owned media" rather than "[it is] their duty not to".
The only mention in the charter (it's really short) is:
> (2) In the provision by the Corporation of its broadcasting services within Australia:
>
>(a) the Corporation shall take account of:
>
>(i) the broadcasting services provided by the commercial and community sectors of the Australian broadcasting system;
It's a Murdoch/Nine/7West continuous whinge that ABC/SBS compete "unfairly", yet when it comes to actual community needs (eg emergency broadcasting, rural and regional reporting etc), they do squat in return for their spectrum and cable licenses.