Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

If ever we need proof of just how out of touch our national broadcaster, the ABC, has become, this week provided it to us in spades. We saw their production team, especially at Q&A,show how far removed they are from mainstream Australia.

As the Prime Minister correctly asked: whose side are they on? I think it is quite clear. This is a case of: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. We have no stranger bedfellows in this country than the socialist left and the Islamic extremists, because they share the same hatred of the coalition.

Look at what we saw this week on the Q&A program; look at the facts that we know. The program allowed itself to become a mouthpiece for terrorist recruitment. This is an absolute outrage. But not only that: we find that the ABC actually had someone who had pleaded guilty and served a jail term for purchasing a firearm with ammunition and threatening to kill an ASIO officer, and was acquitted on much more serious charges. We now know that the ABC paid his travel to their studios and actually helped him write the question.

I am thankful for one thing though: this has clearly backfired. We have seen an example of exposing the Q&A program and the ABC for what they have actually done—being a group of terrorist sympathisers. This is an absolute outrage and a disgrace. Sadly, it is not just a single case of poor judgement; this is just another example of poor judgement in a long list that we have seen from the ABC, which has become a parody of itself and an embarrassment to the taxpayers of this nation. Ultimately, the problem is that the ABC has become reflective of its environment. Being based in Ultimo in the inner city, it reflects the views of Ultimo in the inner city.

This brings me to SBS, and one of the reasons why we should be very careful not to allow SBS to follow the same tracks that the ABC has. It raises the issue of why we need SBS to remain an important institution servicing our multicultural community. The question is: are they best able to continue to do that on the leafy North Shore at Artarmon or should they actually move? Could we relocate them out into Liverpool in south-west Sydney with much more area and much more reflective of the multicultural basis of SBS?

It has been very pleasing to see the New South Wales Premier, Mike Baird, come out strongly in support of calls to relocate the headquarters of SBS to Liverpool. Of the plan or the suggestion to move SBS out to Sydney's west, the Premier said:

I think it's a great idea; indeed, it's logical … If you look at where western Sydney is moving, where Liverpool is moving, the opportunity in terms of future jobs ... I mean, SBS could be a pivotal part in terms of technology.

Indeed, the New South Wales Premier is right. It is logical that we shift the SBS out to Western Sydney. Of course, there is the issue of the cost, and that is something, given the current budgetary environment we have inherited, that we must always give enormous consideration to. But an assessment undertaken by the Real Estate Institute of New South Wales estimated that an equivalent complex in Western Sydney to the one that they have in Artarmon could be worth one-fifth of the price. Not only could we move SBS out to Western Sydney to make sure that SBS is more reflective of the multicultural community of Western Sydney and prevent them falling into the abyss that we have seen the ABC fall into from their inner city headquarters in Ultimo; but in doing so we could actually save the taxpayers' money. So I am calling for the communications minister to have a close look at—as well as all the mess that he has to clean up with the ABC—what can be done to relocate the SBS out to Western Sydney, especially to the Liverpool area. I thank the House.