Government senator urges sale of ABC city properties
Queensland Liberal senator James McGrath had said the ABC’s headquarters in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane should be sold, and the funds used to retire government debt.
In the latest Coalition attack on the national broadcaster, McGrath declared: “The ABC currently operates like a closed-shop, left-wing vortex with an appointments process more secretive than the selection of the Pope”.
Senator James McGrath in the Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra.
Mick Tsikas
The ABC has faced repeated criticism and claims of bias since the Coalition was elected in 2013. A year ago the Liberal Party’s federal council urged it should be privatised – a call immediately rejected by the government.
McGrath said it “needs to shift its headquarters away from the inner-city latte lines to where the ‘quiet Australians’ live, work and play”. It was long past time that it moved to the suburbs or regions, he said.
Questions on notice submitted under Senate estimates showed the ABC’s property portfolio was worth $522 million, he said. “Of the 37 properties in the ABC’s portfolio, Ultimo, Brisbane South Bank and Melbourne Southbank account for 81% of the portfolio’s value. That’s $426 million. What is this achieving for the taxpayer?”
McGrath said given modern technology, there was no reason why the ABC couldn’t operate out of places such as Cairns, Townsville, Mackay, Caboolture or Beenleigh.
“For the purposes of conducting interviews, the ABC could easily copy the Sky News model of a small booth close to capital city CBDs.”
He said this was part of a three point plan he proposed for the ABC “to return to its core duties of delivering accurate, factual and unbiased news services and content”.
“The other parts of the plan include calling for all ABC roles to be advertised externally to broaden the diversity of views within the organisation, and for the government to commit to a full review of the ABC’s Charter, taking into account the changing media environment.”
McGrath issued his statement off the back of comments by Nationals leader Michael McCormack who, when asked on Thursday whether the ABC, if it had more funding, could fill gaps left by WIN closures, suggested it could save money by relocating from Ultimo.
“I’m sure that there are plenty of empty shop fronts in Sale or Traralgon or elsewhere where the ABC could quite easily relocate to a regional centre and save themselves a lot of money and then invest that money that they’ve saved by not being in the middle of Sydney, where they don’t need to be, out at a regional centre.”
McCormack’s office later described his comment as tongue-in-cheek. McGrath’s office said his statement was not tongue-in-cheek.
WIN TV is shutting down newsrooms in Orange, Dubbo, Albury, Wagga Wagga in NSW, and Wide Bay in Queensland. McCormack, who formerly edited The Daily Advertiser in Wagga, said he was saddened by the decision.
“I appreciate that the market is tight and the margins are very slim. But I’m really disappointed that WIN has taken this decision. I’m really disappointed that those news bureaus are closing because they’ve done such a sterling job, in some cases, for up to 30 years.”
Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.
Agreed. Let’s get it done.
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I know if I was pitching a television idea to the ABC I would love to travel to Upper Kumbuckta West to get a ‘No’ because the government has slashed the ABC’s budget yet again.
I think the good member would be better not opening his mouth and letting the people think he is an idiot, rather than opening it and confirming their suspicions.
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So you think because the government is an egregiously incompetent, ideologically-driven manager of the economy that has accumulated double the collective debt of every government since Federation, they should break up and sell off an irreplaceable entity (because that’s what selling off ABC property is really about) so that they can deliver a surplus (in a recession? Do you understand anything at all about economics?) because… why?
Instead of decentralising the ABC (blatantly intended to divide and conquer) to where “quiet Australians” live – ie entrenched right wing voters – the Government should start by decentralising its OWN departments if they’re genuine about doing something to keep their voter base happy.
As for the provably false claim that “The ABC currently operates like a closed-shop, left-wing vortex with an appointments process more secretive than the selection of the Pope”, the ABC’s managing directors for nearly 20 years have all be hand-picked right wing appointees, and the current board stack with extreme right wing luvvies like Janet Albrechtsen.
That the government is STILL accusing the ABC of bias, despite two Government-initiated audits into alleged bias which turned up exactly zero – oh, correction, except that one time the ABC was found to be biased TO THE RIGHT* (but hey, never let facts get in the way of your own bias!) – amply serves to demonstrate this is a blatant attempt to shut down criticism of the Government, in the same way the AFP raids were designed to intimidate and silence critics.
But sure Meri, good to see you applying critical thinking and nuanced reasoning to your response.
* “According to the Gans and Leigh study the only statistically significant slant was for the ABC Channel 2 News programme which preferences Coalition-favoured intellectuals in their reporting. This suggests the ABC news has a right-wing bias with a score of 0.511.”
https://www.theguardian.com/media/datablog/2014/feb/06/australian-broadcasting-corporation-australia
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Amen.
Idiotic suggestion.
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I has travelling this week and was on the Sunshine Coast on Monday night. I turned on Sky news just to see what went on. It was the Paul Murray show. Paul, Richo and some ex advertising bloke were talking about a bunch of things including the ABC. Apparently it was time for more right wing people on the ABC to address the bias and people like Tony Jones needed to be replaced with a more balanced host. We’ve all heard this before. The thing that really stuck me was there are likely to be 30k people watching this show when the Q and A audience is way bigger.
Now this show is really dull but this latte lines nonsense is actually code for people that don’t agree with me and my party. I live near Surry Hills the centre of the latter line and it’s pretty diverse. The point is haven’t the entire population already voted on the right wing Paul Murray Live and the supposed left wing QANDA and the left won.
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Exactly! Keeping ABC offices in places of high population density and at the centre of the business, cultural and political worlds is simply bad planning! Just spend $38 billion a year on Cabcharges from Lightning Ridge.
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An “idiot”? He sure is but I cannot believe just how idiotic: He thinks ALL ABC does in the capitals is provide a camera for one of his ilk to do an interview with a studio elsewhere!!
So, dear senator, who goes out and covers the news in Sydney? Where to any musical group doing a performance for ABC (rock, classic, whatever) go? Wagga???
Where does ABC plan, shoot, edit comedy or drama in future? Burke??
Where do the audiences come from for TGIF, Q&A, any other audience show? Nowra?? (we’ll get sick of the same old dozen folks after a while)
Going to be a real crowded “booth” under the McGrath plan.
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Let’s retire Senator McGrath and use his Super beyond the 9.5% to reduce his government’s debt.
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Let’s sell off both the new & old Parliament Houses in Canberra. Let Parliament sit from their electoral offices using Skype. No more travel, no more free lunches and dinners or drinks. How is that for a money saving idea Mr McGrath !!!!
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Let’s retire Senator McGrath and use his Super beyond the 9.5% to reduce his government’s debt.
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A great initiative. Think of the savings if we sold those lovely federal offices on treasury gardens in Melbourne! No reason why those offices can’t be at Sunbury, which has an excellent train service and a Coles. Dfat can sell that enormous Canberra complex and go where the action is: Penrith! Perfect. McGrath can share a lease with his local burger bar and really get in touch. In the fact the parliament could be shopped as a tourist complex and the house or reps can meet in a marquee on the SCG, the MCG and Adelaide Oval in turn before trying Marcellin Park at Maitland and the Hervey Bay sports club.
This is a trend!!!!
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As commented elsewhere, moving the Sydney office would cost more than sale proceeds – which officially places this idea in the dumb basket, even if you ignore the baseless claims of bias.
The ABC has had to centralise its operations due mainly to the Liberal funding cuts, so I’d imagine the government actually hold the keys to ABC spreading its locations to more regional centers via a funding increase.
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Why should The ABC properties be sold to pay for the debt that The Government was responsible for, in which The Senator is a part of?
Which is like me selling a property to pay for The Liberals and Nationals useless expenses which there are many like useless travel and accommodation, stupid internet access etc etc
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O,Reilly would have been better thinking of something original than using that tired phrase that has been used by millions of tired and talentless drudges. The only idiot here is him and his vacuous minions emulating intelligence. Back to your latte!
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Creative Hack nails it. Another thinly veiled attempt at selling off the Nat Broadcaster and sending some of the country’s most important journalists and skilled creatives to Centrelink. Another brain fart from another bogan senator.
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