Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Calare for acknowledging the role the former Labor government played in the development of Glen Willow, and I also thank him for acknowledging the fact that the member for Grayndler and I were at the official opening. I think that that was the pretext to our very good city-country game. I am aware that Glen Willow needs a greater level of investment, and I look forward to the Turnbull-McCormack government investing in the project as we did as a Labor government. I send a cheerio to Des Kennedy, the mayor of the area, a great guy. I know that he's fighting for those improvements. I should say—and I'm not going to be as generous to the member for Calare as he was to me, and I apologise for my ungentlemanly behaviour—that if the member for Calare really wants to do something for his community, he could deliver the Regional Investment Corporation, something he promised his community. He claimed 200 jobs were involved. It's supposed to open on 1 July but, sadly, it has no CEO, no staff and no location. We'll see where that takes us.

Tonight, I want to talk about our public broadcaster, the ABC. I'm glad the member for Shortland is here with me, because I know that he stands with me in defence of our public broadcaster as one of our critical institutions. In fact, the whole Labor Party is united in the cause to protect the independence of the ABC and to properly fund our ABC. For this reason, Labor moved a motion in parliament calling upon the Turnbull government to pledge that it will never support the privatisation of the ABC. Unfortunately, as you know Mr Speaker, that motion was voted down by the Turnbull-McCormack government. I know that that left many, many people disappointed.

Australians have grown up with the ABC, watching Play School, Bananas in Pyjamasand ABC Kids. ABC's Triple J Hack program engages our youth in news and current affairs relevant to their lives and communities. For the last 20 years, the annual Heywire Regional Youth Summit has put Australians at the centre of the conversations that shape their communities. Landline reporters around the country bring us up to date with the issues affecting rural and regional Australia—in particular, our agricultural sector. From farming to agriculture, food, economics, innovation and climate, the program presents important stories to a national audience.

Every week, 17 million of us still consume some form of ABC content. The first radio and TV services heard in the bush were courtesy of the ABC. Regional towns around the country still depend on the ABC for their local news, including we in the Hunter. In times of fire and flood, the ABC provides crucial services to rural and regional Australia, providing critical warning messages to the community. The ABC's emergency coverage in the Hunter was relied upon during the devastating 2016 April super storm and each scorching summer when bushfires threaten our local communities.

Since 2014, ABC funding has been cut by $366 million and 800 staff have lost their jobs. This is despite the Liberals' election promise of no cuts to our ABC or to SBS. This year alone, the government has cut $83.7 million from our ABC. They've launched two damaging public broadcasting inquiries and have three bills before the parliament which meddle with the ABC charter. We need to speak up before it's too late and to send a clear message of support to our public broadcaster. 'Hands off our ABC,' is the message.

More than 56,000 Australians are standing up for the ABC by signing Labor's petition to save our public broadcaster. It's an issue that's important to people in my local community, communities right throughout the Hunter and right throughout the nation. Labor believe that the ABC is one of the most important institutions and part of the fabric of our nation. It adds to media diversity and Australian content and plays a vital role in regional and remote communities, providing news and emergency information. I was pleased to meet Richard Roxburgh from Rake this week, my favourite ABC show. Labor is committed to reversing the Prime Minister's unfair $83.7 million cut and guaranteeing stable funding for our ABC.