Is the ABC/SBS efficiency review a threat to the public broadcasters?
In recent days public broadcaster the ABC has been under fire from the Coalition, with the Government last night announcing an ‘efficiency review’ for both the ABC and SBS. Mumbrella deputy editor Nic Christensen questions how much of the feud is smoke and mirrors and whether the ABC is really under threat from the Coalition.
Anyone only casually following the news cycle in recent days could be forgiven for thinking that Tony Abbott had told Radio 2GB’s Ray Hadley he wanted to see the ABC abolished.
However, media insiders Mumbrella has spoken to in the last 24 hours note that the efficiency review, announced yesterday, has been on the table and being planned for months with Malcolm Turnbull’s office working closely with both the ABC and SBS.
It is not a direct response to the Government’s jousting with the ABC over asylum seekers, the Edward Snowden NSA leaks, or long-running hostility to the ABC among certain conservative backbenchers.
If Abbott feels he’s been misrepresented then he should take action against the ‘right-wing’ papers for doing so. Their bias is so blatant that he shouldn’t stand by silently if he doesn’t agree with it. And pigs might fly. I encourage ‘efficiency’ but their are other areas he needs to fix first – like human rights for one. Having what are essentially concentration camps being run by the government is what I would call ‘un-Australian’. The Libs are great if you’re wealthy, but financial wealth does not make a country great.
Nic. Malcolm Turnbull may achieve what many have failed to do if a rigorous inquiry by the right people was held into day to day management at the ABC. It has always had a big problem and that is that the creative people in the organisation are overwhelmed by a thick tier of middle management. Decision making and process is incredibly slow and there is a very low level of accountability. Urgency, particularly with the many sub contracting independent producers just isn’t in the ABC vocabulary. As voluntary redundancies were made over the past decade it was often the best who put up their hands, quickly employed in the private sector. Dealing with a commercial broadcaster is fast and professional. If the ABC could achieve just a 5% improvement in efficiency it could liberate a lot of money for TV and Radio creation and keep the very good program makers there working. However with a Federal government seemingly intent only on vengeance I doubt that Malcolm will succeed and a sensible review will ever effect change.
Jake – you make it seem like under Labor we’re all better off. The truth is that for the ‘rich’ people, what the government does will hardly impact them and their way of life. Middle Aus doesn’t understand how much it actually needs the Libs, and how we simply cannot afford another Labor government.
The ABC costs each citizen around 12cents per day. When you think about the quality and diversity of platforms you get for that it’s ridiculously good efficiency already. Its particularly good value for parents due to the developmentally appropriate programming for kids without junk food ads – and the health report ect.
It’s probably one of the most efficient organisations in Australia and certainly beats the crap out of most commercial media who will charge over 10x that for access on one platform.
You can argue that that the efficiency review isn’t an attack on the ABC for recent incidents and you’d be right………rather its an attack on the ABC for longstanding cultural opposition from our current Prime Minister. Tony is both a former employee of the Newscorp – who’s only barrier to market monopoly is the ABC – and a pro-privatisation cultural warrior. He’s had the ABC in his sights since before our great grandfather’s father’s came down from the mountains.
Efficiency review of a 12cents per diem service while MP’s go to each other’s weddings at the taxpayer expense. In the words of Bernard Black – “Don’t make me get sick into my own scorn”.
Lets privatise the ABC
Peter Lewis is a great appointment – a very fair and deeply experienced TV exec with broad experience. Not all of Ch 7 is ‘commercial’ – there is a fair degree of programming and content that is never expected to return direct dollars.
@ Jake….Right wing or left wing media can do what its rich PRIVATE owner wants (and you can tune out as you see fit). But the ABC is publicly owned by all Australians (even, dare I say it, the majority who put Abbott into power at the last election) and it should be unbiased and impartial. I think that’s the point.
Voldemort “Middle Aus doesn’t understand how much it actually needs the Libs”
Clearly you are on the News Limited payroll…
The only thing I hate more than Tony Abbott is a moronic Triple J presenter so it’s hard to figure out to root for here…
Same shit, different PM. Happens every time under the conservatives. I love the ABC and am heartily sick and tired of giving this stupid debate oxygen. Wake up people. Go live in any third world country and see what kind of “efficiency” you get from your public broadcaster. Aren’t they now no. 3 in the ratings?
@ken . Actually lets not!
I think any keen observer would be see that this is all about the Australia Network contracts. Murdoch doesnt just randomly hate stuiff, he’s acting in self interest and his self interest is that he wants the Australia network contract, and to get it he has to pry it from the ABCs cold dead hands. So he wants ABC dead.
I no longer listen to the ABC, cannot stand the Left-wing bias from the same old 60s has-beens and the dull regularity of certain topics – refugees, Green issues etc. It’s certainly not my ABC, why should I fund it?
The regular comments on Mumbrella both in this article and others that discuss topics that travel down the political path often make me wonder about the inherrent attitudes of the youngish, comfortable, urban collective that dominates our industry and if they understand the market and are committed to the profit motives of their employers and/or clients
That’s a picture of Humpty with Noni, not Humpty Dumpty
When Television started in Australia, the Radio Industry poo-poohed it so much that people seriously wondered if it WAS just “a passing fad”. Similar stories elsewhere in the world.
When Pay TV was coming, the Barons of existing print media and Television claimed it wouldn’t work, it would just be full of porn, nobody would pay. We don’t need it, we don’t want it.
Now we are on the brink of Fast broadband – offering another media revolution – the EXISTING OWNERS and their Government Flunkies are desperately trying to water it down, slow it down, it’s too expensive, we don’t need it, why do we need faster Youtube cat movies?
The buggy-makers disparaged automobiles, claiming young people would be able to go off somewhere remote and have sex. Oh, right.
“Rock and Roll has got to go” – who said that as he smashed records? Oh, that’s right, someone making his living in music but NOT rock and roll.
People like Mr Murdoch and Mr Abbott have tremendous investment in the status quo. Apart, that is, from pulling down anything they disagree with. Abortions, ABC, The Left, free medical, equitable education.
Note to self: ask Barry O’Farrell when MY street is going to be paved with gold. I’ve been waiting for a while now… surely it must be soon…