Education minister Chris Pyne starts petition demanding ABC keeps Adelaide production unit
A government minister has started an online petition to protest against plans by the ABC to shut a production unit in South Australia – a move which has come about due to a $50m-a-year budget cuts planned by the current government.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne has created the Change.org petition after Monday night’s Media Watch program claimed the production unit would be one of the casualties along with 4-500 jobs at the public broadcaster.
In the rationale for the petition Pyne claims it it the last production unit of the ABC outside of Sydney and Melbourne, adding it has made a number of shows “targeted at individual groups within the community and are crucial to a diverse market”.
It adds: “By moving ABC TV elsewhere, it will incur unnecessary costs and remove the efficient and innovative production unit from South Australia.”
The unit is responsible for a number of hit series including the currently airing retrospective Countdown: Do Yourself a Favour which got nearly a million viewers on Sunday night, as well as The Cook and The Chef, Poh’s Kitchen and Dream Build.
The cut was one several flagged on Media Watch on Monday, although the Minister for Communications Malcolm Turnbull and the broadcaster are yet to officially announce how much money will be stripped from the budget.
The right hand clearly has no idea what the far right hand is doing.
The ‘derp’ is strong with this government.
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😮
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Not poh’s kitchen pls noooo
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Perhaps the more effective approach would be to talk to his fellow ministers about why the ABC budget cuts are needed in the first place.
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There would be no cuts to the ABC operations if the government kept its promise about there being no cuts to the ABC. Maybe Pyne should start a petition demanding the government keeps its promises.
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Maybe the ABC should be made to make do with no $ all for 30 days. That would teach those latte overdosing leftie whingers.
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Irony overload!
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oh the irony, love it
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Is he stupid?
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Since when is he CHRIS Pyne (as in your headline). Far too familiar/generous for someone causing so much damage to our education system.
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The comments on the petition are priceless.
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A Minister of a government responsible for cutting the ABC budget, which has not been announced, starts a petition based on a speculative and unconfirmed Media Watch report to say cut anywhere but not in my backyard.
Have I got that right or is that just the drugs kicking in?
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Hey AdGrunt, asked and answered on both Pyne and Elbogrease.
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Wow a Liberal politician wanting to save some part of the ABC….Pyne surprises again
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Read the comments on the Petition page, vitriol doesn’t even come close…
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No just cynical
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A new form of nimbyism? Or just expected levels of cant and hypocrisy?
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I looked up the meaning of ‘hypocrite’ on line.. and strike me pink… there was a picture of Christopher Pyne himself.
(Could have been a poodle though).
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Mark Twain: “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.”
If a comedy/political parody show scriptwriter offered this, it’d be rejected as too crazy to be possible.
But here we are……
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Sorry Elbogrease, but you seem to be missing the point. The ABC is government owned and is not and never had been controlled by latte overdosing leftie whingers. But there are many mad right wingers who often suggest they know how to run the organisation. Silly old buggers.
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You reckon this might just be spin to pretend he cares. His personal value/goodwill at present must be well under zero. Also as we know, what they say publicly and what the do privately, will never be the same.
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Tut tut. Bronwynne Bishop will be very angry with her protege. How dare he rock boat?
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Christopher you are not the Messiah. You’re just a very naughty boy.
100 lines for you! – “I must not associate with serial liars”
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It all gets very confusing when Turnbull lies about Abbott lying and Pyne wants us to believe that closing a production unit to save money will incur unnecessary costs. On top of all that Cormann is now saying the cuts to the ABC are not cuts just deferred efficiency dividends over many past years. That is like claiming the cuts are really an increase.
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“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.” – Malcolm X
Oh my oh my. Did a bunch of working class buffoons who read the Daily Tele vote in our dear old Tony?
Dear Mr X,
Sadly you were right and the man Murdoch (as well as a few others) have got in there and manipulated the minds of the weak.
Fortunately, we hope, social media might correct the false, sinister and corrupt and take a little bit from the rich, to give to the poor. That is all we ask for.
Pyne is nasty isn’t he? Definitely one of the bad guys.
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