Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I certainly will, Mr Acting Deputy President. Thank you for the reminder. This has been going on for years. There was the closure of Hobart, for example, and the gradual leeching and running down of production capacity in Western Australia, which cost a lot of good people their jobs. This has happened right around the place. In fact, I think Adelaide really is the only place left outside the Sydney-Melbourne axis that has maintained dedicated production capacity. Do you know why? Because centralisation is efficient, according to the way that these calculations are made. On the raw spreadsheets it is less efficient to have people right around the country doing this kind of work. That is why we maintain public broadcasters in this country—because the private sector really has to pay attention to those kinds of efficiencies, and that is why we see the hollowing out of regional production.

If you are so desperate to operate the ABC and the SBS as efficient commercial broadcasters, I invite coalition senators to quit their Senate positions and to go and get jobs in the private sector and to leave people who care about public broadcasters and public institutions to run those things. Quite clearly you are more interested in running these institutions into the ground. Quit your jobs in the Senate running public broadcasters and go and find yourselves work in the public sector. I am sure they would love to hear your views on efficiency out there. Leave the ABC and the SBS the hell alone in the meantime.