Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today Mark Scott of the ABC chose to take the low-hanging fruit instead of making the tough decisions with the ABC, in my opinion, by closing the production studios in Adelaide and winding down remaining production in other smaller states and by closing five regional news collecting services throughout Australia, including Port Augusta. These are decisions that will further centralise production on the eastern seaboard, particularly in Sydney, where already 51 per cent of the ABC workforce reside. I checked the charter, and it says that the ABC should broadcast 'programs that contribute to a sense of national identity and inform and entertain, and reflect the cultural diversity of, the Australian community.' That will be very hard to do unless it has eyes and ears in local and regional Australia. Yes it is true the ABC has been asked to produce a five per cent efficiency dividend to take their budget from $5.5 billion over the next five years to $5.2 billion. It is still a massive amount of money. I was speaking to someone from the commercial sector today, and he laughed when I said it was a five per cent cut. He said they had had far greater than that. It was a bit like the Monty Python episode about the four Yorkshireman—a five per cent cut? I dream of a five per cent cut! I have more a say on this issue and I will do that at a later time.