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

Yesterday I spoke in the Federation Chamber about the ABC closing down Port Augusta and its withdrawal of service from South Australia. I am transfixed to sit here today—because I spoke about the cuts to the ABC—and listen to speaker after speaker on that side of the chamber now describing a 4.6 per cent cut as a savage cut. This shows they have absolutely no understanding of what businesses throughout Australia are going through. In fact, the ABC is being reduced from $5.5 billion to $5.2 billion over the next five years. That is not a savage cut. Any organisation worth their salt could follow the plan put out by the efficiency review board to identify those easy savings.

Let me point out that this same organisation had the money to send the Q&A show to Indonesia, to China and to India. It has the money to advertise ABC programs on Fox. It is a major sponsor of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Sydney. It booked out of the Sydney Opera House. That is no cheap venue. I do not exactly know what the rates on the Opera House are at the moment, but I can tell you that it is a lot of money. The ABC had ample room to cut their expenditure, without cutting into regional Australia—one of the few places they fulfil their charter.

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