Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last week, in Bendigo, over 100 people rallied in Hargreaves Mall, at the front of Senator Bridget McKenzie's office, a Nationals member, calling on the government to reverse its savage cuts to the ABC. People in Bendigo signed petitions and stood up and said that they loved their ABC and that they did not support the government's cuts to the ABC and SBS. I was proud to stand on the lawns of Parliament today, with that banner and ready to present to the government. That is representation. It is not representation to be part of a party, to be part of a coalition, that votes in favour of cuts, that is quite complicit as it sits here and agrees with that, and then goes on TV and on radio and says, 'Oh, the ABC shouldn't be cutting services in my electorate. It shouldn't be cutting those services to my constituents.' The ABC has got to cut somewhere. Costs go up.

Those opposite claim to be the government that represents big business, so who is it going to be? You have got part of the government saying, 'Do not shut down the studios in Adelaide.' You have also got part of the government saying, 'Do not shut down the Bush Telegraph.' What is it going to be? Is it going to be the bush, or is it going to be Adelaide? The government need to reverse these cuts. They need to listen to the Australian people. The ABC is not the propaganda arm of the government of the day. The ABC is the people's voice. It is the people's broadcaster. And it is time this government did the right thing and reversed the cuts to the ABC and listened to the Australian people.

Rowan Ramsey (Grey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to 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.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It has been just over a year since literally millions of Australians and nearly 100,000 in my electorate of Hotham went to the ballot box and made a decision, as is their democratic right, on who should form government in this country—and they did so based on a number of promises that were made. We heard so clearly throughout the campaign that there would be no changes to pensions, that there would be no cuts to health and that there would be no changes to education funding in Australia. Then right on the night before the election, we had the Prime Minister go on SBS and say in crystal clear language that there would be no cuts to the ABC and the SBS. Over the last year, we have watched each of those pillars of trust being cast aside by this Prime Minister and this government. I have to say that the feeling out in the electorate at the moment is that this promise about the ABC and the SBS is the straw that broke the camel's back. The man who is leading this country cannot be trusted. Nothing that comes out of his mouth can be relied upon by the Australian people.

We know in this chamber that the ABC and the SBS provide very important services, and we have heard a little bit about that today—regional and rural content, the important role that the SBS and the ABC play in delivering emergency services and children's programming—all of these things. But even if you do not think these are important services, the breach of trust at the heart of this unbelievable. Not only are the government lying; but they are lying about lying—and that is what is so disappointing. Front up, prove to the Australian people that you have got some integrity and at least be honest about these cuts. (Time expired)