ABC funding cuts close to $1bn, says Get Up-commissioned study

By 2022, Coalition governments will have stripped the ABC of more than $783m in funding, according to new research conducted for Get Up by think tank Per Capita.

In real terms, that means the public broadcaster is operating with the smallest budget since the Howard government docked 2% from the ABC’s funding in 1996, which amounted to $55m.

“In 1987, [the] ABC famously cost each Australian eight cents a day. In 1987 dollar terms we now cost each Australian just four cents a day,” ABC chief financial officer Louise Higgins said in 2018.