Bill Shorten vows to undo ABC’s $83.7m budget cuts should Labor be elected
Bill Shorten has proposed a reversal of the Coalition’s $83.7m cut to the ABC should the Labor party claw its way out of opposition and into government at the next election.
According to Shorten, doing so will ensure the broadcaster can meet its charter requirements and adapt to the digital media environment, while still maintaining jobs.
Shorten said “enough is enough”
It follows the 2018 Budget announcement from federal treasurer Scott Morrison, which saw the government freeze the ABC’s annual funding indexation.
The decision amounts to an $84m hit to the ABC’s bottom line, with ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie lamenting that the public broadcaster has been hit by $254m in cuts since 2014.
ABC news boss Gaven Morris also warned there was “no more fat left to cut” at the broadcaster. Just last year, the ABC restructured, dividing the organisation into three divisions, based on genres of content.
Following the 2018 Budget announcement, the ABC launched a proposal to double its investment in digital, which would eventuate in the loss of up to 37 positions.
On Monday, Shorten said “enough is enough”.
I wanted you to hear this first. A Shorten Labor Government will reverse Turnbull’s $83.7 million cut. We’ll also guarantee funding certainty over the next ABC budget cycle so they can get on with providing the content and services that Australians trust and rely on. pic.twitter.com/gdJJa28FCR
— Bill Shorten (@billshortenmp) June 11, 2018
“From Playschool to Bananas in Pyjamas, from cricket to the Hottest 100 Countdown, to getting critical warning messages out about floods and fire – the ABC is a part of our national fabric,” Shorten said.
“That’s why Labor will stand up for the ABC and fight against the conservatives’ ideological war against our public broadcaster. Only Labor will reverse Turnbull’s $83.7 million of cuts and guarantee funding certainty over the next ABC budget cycle.
“This investment demonstrates Labor’s commitment to the ABC’s independence and to maintain the ABC as our comprehensive national broadcaster.”
He said Australians needed the ABC as a “strong, trusted” and “independent” public broadcaster, and Labor could protect it.
“At a time when too many Australians feel disengaged from their democracy and distrustful of their representatives, Labor wants to restore trust and faith in our institutions. Part of restoring trust is supporting a healthy public interest media sector, and protecting that trusted institution – the ABC,” he said.
They’re not cuts not matter how many times you keep repeating the outright lie.
If you’re paid $20 per hour today and next year you’re paid $20 an hour, you haven’t had your pay cut. The ABC funding hasn’t been cut – it’s just remaining that the exact same level for the next three years.
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Of course he’ll give the ABC money.
Can’t have the publicity machine being nobbled.
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Zoe, you do realise that such a reinstatement of funds will have no effect on “… the loss of up to 37 positions …” because those job cuts are specifically to “allow the organisation to invest the saved funds into content creation” (ABC quote). The same as the 22 redundancies in the state newsrooms, not to save money but, according to the head of news, “We’re not doing this to save money, or withdraw resources from local newsrooms” but so that “… new senior editorial roles would be introduced to add to the expertise and skills in the newsroom …”.
Just in case you inadvertently gave the impression that any of these redundancies were the result of government funding cuts.
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I take it that the above commenters would be happy to still be receiving the same salary they were getting (say) a decade ago, simply because it hadn’t been cut.
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Dear JG,
You ask if ‘the above commenters would be happy to still be receiving the same salary they were getting (say) a decade ago, simply because it hadn’t been cut’.
The truth of the matter is that industry salaries haven’t risen over the last few years, they’ve declined; just as the number of jobs has declined as well.
Just because we used to get paid more year on year doesn’t mean that trend will continue.
As an industry we have to recalibrate our salary expectations to match the reality of what clients are paying us.
For more and more of us, how to keep our jobs is more relevant than whether we’re earning the same salary or not.
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Twenty years on, I’m still waiting for Labor to roll back the GST, which Wayne Swan called at the time a ‘bastard tax’. He went on to be Treasurer for six years and he remains in Parliament to this day; the Labor leader of the time has just become the Governor of WA; and the GST is still with us.
I wouldn’t hold my breath for any stray 83 million dollars to come the ABC’s way.
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Run by Murdoch’s IPA how can it be other than being run into the ground by a bunch of Liberal trolls.?
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