Labor promises more ABC funding if it wins election
Labor leader Bill Shorten has promised a $13 million boost the ABC’s regional and emergency broadcasting service along with committing to restore the national broadcaster’s funding should the ALP win this year’s federal election.
Shorten’s commitment, made in his budget reply speech, follows the government allocating $43.7m in funding for news and regional affairs announced earlier this week.
Opposition leader Bill Shorten reiterated his promise to reverse ABC budget cuts should the ALP win government
Along with the reversal of the current government’s cuts announced in last year’s budget, the opposition also promised to guarantee of stable funding over the next ABC budget cycle.
Shorten also announced a $3m news literacy program to fight misinformation through a range of programs and initiatives for teachers and students to hone their news consumptions skills.
“The ABC provides vital local news services. In fact, 17 million Australians consume some form of ABC content every week – it is part of our national fabric,” the opposition said in a statement.
“Since 2013, the Liberals have cut $366 million from the ABC, which has seen 800 staff forced to walk out the door, the shutdown of shortwave radio and a reduction in Australian content.
“On top of these devastating cuts, the Liberals repealed the two out of three cross-media control rule, waving through further consolidation of media in Australia’s already highly concentrated media market, including in regional areas.
“In this environment, the ABC has an even greater responsibility to support the delivery of local and regional news, information gathering and emergency broadcasting.”
Yesterday’s sitting of federal parliament was probably the last before an election is called for late May.
The ABC has it too good. It should count itself lucky not to actually have a cut in spending. Take the Nine Network published cost results since 2015: +3%, then -6%, -6%, +2% and this year another likely -2%. Down from $1.009b to $948m estimated costs this year – down 6% over the past 4 years. Seven network is more complicated because of the studio offshore revenues, costs and earnings allocations. But also, here revenues have remained unchanged at $1.26b since FY16 and costs similar.
The ABC budget should be set on the rolling three-year average revenues of the FTA and radio industry, weighted for ABC cost proportions of radio and TV costs so that it does not better the resources of the commercial Australian media sector.
Of course, many readers will then talk journalism and the ABC’s/SBS importance in providing this. Well, looking at the Fairfax (now NEC) metro titles, costs there have been reduced from $596m in FY15 to expected $424m in FY19 (on IH trends): -29%. The ABC should match that fall.
Now many of the readers here will say, all the more we need the ABC. But it is contrary to good governance for a nation to own the remaining single largest media (we should include the couple of hundred million dollars of SBS here) owned by a biased, no viewer editorial choice organisation. If we don’t like Nine or Seven, we can turn it off all the way to their bankruptcies, but we have no choice with he ABC/SBS. It keeps going despite throwing excremental editorial and social advocacy in the face of the typical 45-55% two party preferred vote to Liberal parties since 1949. On that basis it is no better than Pravda or the People Daily for left wing advocacy.
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… ah, how quickly we forget … and what percentage was it that Bob Hawke and Paul Keating cut from the ABC’s budget while they were in control of the purse strings? The Libs have a long way to go before they match that! At the end of the day, politicians from any party are all as bad as each other.
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The ABC needs a good cleanout. Far to many left wing activists steering the conversation down every single minority cause that pops up in staff’s news feed. It is a toilet that requires a competent plumber, domestos and a good scrub.
Zero impartiality. I think it would be a worth while statistics exercise to count the negative Donald Trump, Climate Change and #MeToo stories as a proportion of total news reported.
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It’s like you don’t value correct information, Roger.
We NEED something that is better than the commercial Australian media sector, much of which is ruled by shareholders’ and owners’ interests rather than the public benefit.
Costs have fallen at other outlets because they have cut back on their biggest asset – their reporters. People such as yourself have become disillusioned with the media because it has been torn to shreds and no longer functions as it should. To fix that, you need more funding, not less.
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That reads more like teaching teachers and the future generations to take a pro-labor spin on everything.
Seriously, government stepping in to “educate” people how to interpret media content does democracy and freedom of thought no favours.
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The ABC’s demise is of its’ own making.
Too many of its journalists seem held bent on providing an alternative POV to ‘the right wing media’.
In doing so it has become the very thing it believes it’s opposing – the political arm of one section of the Australian community.
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