The ABC

The Principles

1. A properly funded and resourced ABC, which provides accurate information, thoughtful analysis and honest discussion, is essential to the functioning of democracy in Australia.

2. The right to legitimate criticism and dissent is integral to a democratic society and should be reflected in the national broadcaster.

3. The commitment of the ABC is to the public interest. It is free of the commercial imperatives of the rest of the media, which is privately owned and serves the economic interests of owners, shareholders and advertisers.

4. With the increasing concentration of media ownership (eg. apart from Sydney and Melbourne all other States have only one newspaper per day and except for WA these are all owned by Rupert Murdoch) the maintenance of the ABC is essential to media diversity.

5. The ABC, through its cultural programs, and programs linking all parts of Australia, is essential to our evolving national identity.

6. Radio Australia is one of Australia's most respected and effective means of contributing accurate information on world events, legitimate advocacy and principles of development to the growth of democracy in South East Asia and elsewhere.

The Issues

1. Successive Commonwealth Budgets have drastically cut funds to the ABC. Over the last 8 years the ABC has lost one fifth of its staff and one third of its funds.

2. Budget cuts have resulted in the serious reduction of Australian drama, Australian documentaries, religious affairs programs, rural programs and cultural programs.

3. For two years Radio Australia was unable to be heard in South East Asia. Most of the multi-lingual journalists lost their jobs. With a small injection of funds Radio Australia again broadcasts into South East Asia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Southern China. It no longer uses the specially built Cox Peninsular Transmitter, which was sold, last year, to Christian Voice, a fundamentalist Christian radio network broadcasting into Muslim countries in Asia. Radio Australia has had to make deals with other organizations to rebroadcast into South East Asia.

4. The ABC continues to outsource its programs to private companies. This year, Sue Masters, who for many years commissioned all ABC drama, left to go to Channel 10. Spokespeople for Channel 10 have said, "we are bringing drama in-house, because this way we can control it more carefully."

5. The Training and Development department which has won Commonwealth Broadcasting Awards for excellence in training journalists and, through AusAid, has done training in South Africa and the Mekong, has been broken up and now functions in an advisory capacity to different departments.

6. Because the ABC Board is appointed by the government of the day, it has become more and more politicised. Board members do not have to have any knowledge of, or interest in, broadcasting.

7. Since the appointment of a new Managing Director, many staff members of long standing have found their jobs abolished, or have been forced to resign or reapply and undergo psychological testing. New management staff, from commercial television and radio, have taken their places at salaries the old staff could only dream of. As funding has not increased "where is the money for programming to come from?"

8. With the refusal to renew the contract of Paul Barry, of Media Watch, after his robust interview with ABC Chairman Donald McDonald, the ABC has placed an inordinate burden on anyone applying to fill the job in the future. The choice is to toady to management or risk losing the job, thus making any such program unable to function.

Alternatives

1. De-politicise the ABC Board by calling for applications through the newspaper. Then have applicants interviewed and selected by a multi-party committee from both Federal Houses of Parliament. Add, as a criterion, that at least some of those appointed have some knowledge of broadcasting.

2. Restore funding to the ABC at the levels, in real terms, it was receiving in the late 1980's. Present funding is more than a third less than it was in the 1980's.

3. End outsourcing of drama, comedy and science programs. In-house productions give the ABC control over its productions. There is no proof that outsourcing is any cheaper or better than in-house production.

4. Stop the sale of any more ABC property. The ABC sold its French's Forest studios, one of the best outfitted studios in the Southern Hemisphere. The management still wants to sell the Gore Hill television site in Sydney. Other ABC properties are on the market.

5. Fund properly the ABC's move into digitisation. The ABC requested $194 million (a figure corroborated by Anderson Consulting). It has received $27 million so far.

6. Allow the ABC to multi channel and do not restrict the output to education, rural and business.

7. Allow the ABC, through digitisation, to turn its radio network (48 stations around Australia) into stations able to produce television programmes as well. This would enable the ABC, both easily and more cheaply, to use its regional networks to make programs of greater local interest.

8. Call on all political parties to realise that, in a democracy, the national broadcaster's job is that of critic. The ABC is now almost our only effective watchdog. Call on all politicians to understand that when reporters ask politicians hard questions they are, in fact, the people's guardians, asking the people's questions.