Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak on the motion by the member for Fremantle, relating to the ABC and SBS, noting that the principle of the motion is unfounded and unnecessary. In fact, I wonder if the member proposing this motion has actually listened to the plethora of statements made by the Minister for Communications. If she had, she would be aware that this motion is simply irrelevant. Indeed, it is nothing more than a beat-up by a rudderless opposition trying to drum up yet another baseless scare campaign.

I wish to make the following points very clear. The Australian government has no power to direct the ABC in relation to organisational matters. Neither does the government have any plans to review the ABC's charter. Internal ABC programming and editorial decisions are the responsibility of the ABC executive board. Since the ABC started, politicians and the public have had particular views on ABC programming and have made their views well known. One of the ABC's statutory obligations is to be accurate and impartial in its news and current affairs programs according to the recognised standards of objective journalism. The ABC board is required to develop codes of practice relating to programming matters and lodge these codes with the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

While the ABC has editorial independence, it is accountable to the parliament through annual reports, corporate plans, and financial and performance audits, and it appears before parliamentary committees. The government is committed to maintaining the quality, performance and efficiency of the ABC.

I note that the chairman of the ABC, the Hon. James Spigelman AC QC, announced on 11 December last year a series of independent editorial audits of the ABC's news and current affairs programs. The ABC itself intends to undertake four external audits of its news and current affairs services each year and will publicly release the audit findings.

On the matter of ABC and SBS funding, the Australian government has no plans to reduce funding for the ABC or SBS or to review their editorial policies and programming content or the responsibilities under their charters. Similarly, the government has no plan to introduce advertising on the ABC. That is yet another Labor scare tactic. The ABC and SBS receive $1.4 billion in funding from the Australian government a year. It is a routine responsibility of all government agencies to ensure that taxpayers' funds are used as efficiently as possible, and the national broadcaster should be no exception. The Department of Communications has commenced a study to examine costs for the day-to-day operations that deliver ABC and SBS programs, products and services and propose options to increase efficiency and reduce expense. The study will review not the content of what is broadcast but, rather, the cost of delivering that content and the operations that support it. The main objective of the study is to ensure that the ABC and SBS can fulfil their charter responsibilities as cost-effectively as possible and keep pace with rapidly changing practices in the broadcasting sector. I must make it clear that these studies are purely for efficiency to ensure that taxpayers' money is being spent appropriately; they are not an investigation into editorial content. The report arising from the study will be provided to the chairman of the ABC and SBS on completion.

In addition to the efficiency study, the National Commission of Audit has been provided with a broad remit to examine the scope for efficiency and productivity improvements across all areas of Commonwealth expenditure. If the commission comments on the national broadcasters, then the government will consider its comments, along with the findings of the efficiency study.

The ABC is a very special organisation. Unlike any part of the commercial media, it has to steer a middle course. That is not to say that it cannot express an opinion. But it does have a statutory and legislative obligation to be accurate and impartial in its news and information services according to the objective standards of journalism. To all those who think that the government should be regulating the media, just remember: the internet has grown up with almost no government involvement at all. The internet has been built and is governed almost entirely by the technical community that built it. It is almost a government-free zone. It is worth reflecting on that. The greatest technological and communications innovation in history was instigated by government but has grown up without it.

I look forward to seeing the efficiency studies into the ABC and SBS result in better value for the taxpayers' dollar, and I trust that the ABC's own editorial audits and board of directors, in consultation with the Australian public, will address issues expressed by the Australian audience. (Time expired)

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