Alex Gallacher (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

We are debating this matter of public importance today on the ABC and SBS. It is a pretty sad day for the ABC's workers in South Australia, and I am going to take a very parochial view in respect to this. The Prime Minister made an election commitment stating that there would be no cuts to education, no cuts to health, no changes to pensions, no changes to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS. He has reneged on all of those commitments—absolutely reneged on all of those commitments. I suppose, to the credit of the ABC, they have highlighted that. I think that fundamental to any democracy is freedom of the press and having a public broadcaster that has the breadth and depth of experience to accurately portray to millions of listeners the situation in this country.

It is absolutely extraordinary that, on top of the efficiency dividend, there are further cuts to the ABC. You could take the very biased view that it is the coalition government getting back at critics. I certainly do not agree with everything the ABC present to the population, but I respect their right to do that—and I think it is a very important thing to be doing. When we live in a society where people are reading less and they get more through their ears and their eyes than they do through sitting down reading documents and newspapers, there is a very important role to play in balancing the prejudice that occasionally comes from some sections of the media.

There is no doubt that there have been times in history where a certain large press organisation has backed either a Labor government or a Liberal government and they sail on those fair winds that they see in the population having the support of one or another position. But the ABC seeks to be balanced. It is critical of Labor governments, it is critical of Liberal governments, it is critical of Greens party members, it is critical of PUP members and it is critical of National Party members. It attempts to put some balance into the equation.

On South Australia, quite ironically, I do agree with Christopher Pyne and his call for the last production unit outside of Sydney and Melbourne—which is Adelaide—not to be cut. But, very interestingly, I listened to his contribution in the debate in the other place just after question time and the ABC did not get a mention. All of the alleged sins of the previous government got a mention, but the ABC did not get a mention. It is quite ironic that, on top of Holden and on top of the discontent around submarines, we now have another cut to South Australian jobs. Mr Pyne and his coalition colleagues should hang their heads in shame for allowing their leadership to continually attack South Australian jobs.

As senators for South Australia we should be standing here protecting South Australian jobs. Extremely work is done in South Australia by those good journalists, production workers and backroom staff in the ABC, and we should be standing meekly by while this economic rationalist debate is thrown about. We should be honing in on the defence of the institution of the ABC and, in particular, the South Australian component of that. I have had the privilege of being duty senator for Grey, and I know how much those rural constituents rely on their ABC for radio news, for Landlineand for the ABC news in the evening. Any attempt to take information away from people, to reduce the flow of information and to reduce the balance in the argument in the media by cutting their budget is an incredibly bad step for any democratic country.

The ABC is an institution which is worthwhile supporting. It is obviously worthwhile working for, as people compete to work for it. It may have an efficiency dividend imposed upon it, but to have savage cuts imposed on top of that dividend is truly remarkable, given that the Prime Minister of this country stated that 'there will be no cuts to the ABC or SBS'.