Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the night before the 2013 federal election, Prime Minister Abbott promised, on SBS news, 'no cuts to the ABC or SBS'. After the election it became another broken promise, and in the May budget $232 million was cut from the ABC. A one per cent efficiency dividend has been imposed on the ABC, and the Australia Network has been closed. The one per cent efficiency dividend comes on top of cuts imposed on the ABC by governments since 1986. Since the 1980s, staffing numbers have fallen from around 6,000 to 4,600 today, which is a 23 per cent reduction, and in real terms funding to the ABC has decreased by around $251 million. Simultaneously ABC services have increased with, amongst other things, the addition of three new radio stations, 11 new digital stations, three new digital television channels and expanded online services. So the ABC today is doing more with less.

Contrary to the rhetoric of some people, the ABC is a very efficient organisation. Indeed, it can be argued that the ABC is more efficient than commercial networks. In addition, by comparison with other Western countries, the ABC receives the fifth lowest government funding per capita. Yet the Abbott government continues to expect the ABC to find further savings, when it also knows that there are limited options for cuts, because around 20 per cent of the ABC's budget is spent on transmission costs and other fixed charges over which there is no discretion. Not surprisingly there are real concerns throughout the ABC that drastic staff cuts will be made and, in turn, services will also be cut or wound down. The cuts will particularly impact on country communities, for whom the ABC performs a vital service.

Last week, along with my Labor colleagues the member for Adelaide, Kate Ellis, and Senator Anne McEwen, I attended a rally outside the ABC offices at Collinswood, in Adelaide. The purpose of the rally was to draw attention to the Abbott government's cuts to the ABC and to the effects those cuts will have on jobs and services in SA. For South Australia, ABC cuts will be devastating. Currently over 408 staff work for the ABC in SA. Up to 150 of those jobs could be lost along with local production of programs and services. These are real jobs of dedicated staff who have already delivered the efficiency gains asked of them.

I believe the cuts are not just driven by the government's poor management of its own budget but also by the Abbott government's extreme right-wing ideology, where the ABC's impartiality is seen as an impediment to the Abbott government's agenda.

I call on the government to keep its election promises not to cut funding to the ABC, and I call on South Australian Liberal members including the member for Sturt, the member for Hindmarsh, the member for Boothby and the member for Mayo, none of whom fronted up to the rally to stand up for South Australian ABC services, to stand up for SA jobs and to oppose the Abbott government's cuts to the ABC. (Time expired)