Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thirty years ago the ABC cost us eight cents a day. Now it costs just half that, at about four cents a day. With that four cents it delivers news we can trust 24 hours a day, every day, across the regions and across TV, radio and online. Frankly, you'd really think that's pretty good value for money in this day and age. But no: instead, the coalition's telling the ABC to find another $84 million in savings on top of the $254 million that it has already cut from the national broadcaster since 2014. Why? Well, it sure ain't budget repair—rather, it's petty revenge for the baseless view that fair and fearless reporting is somehow biased reporting. Regrettably, it's the Australian public who will pay the price for this vengeful ideological crusade. The reality is that the ABC is competent and efficient and gives value for money. The cuts to its funding are unacceptable and must be reversed. Indeed, stripping funding fundamentally diminishes Australia's independent media generally and, in particular, the ABC's vital role as the nation's emergency broadcaster, especially in rural, regional and remote Australia and especially in Tasmania.

In any case, let's stop thinking about what the ABC costs the community, and instead think of the cost to the community if the ABC falters. In this era of fake news and diminishing investment in journalism the ABC is a priceless source of trusted news. Indeed, 71 per cent of Australian adults watch, read or listen to the ABC every week. Moreover, 82 per cent of Australians trust the information provided by the ABC, making it the nation's most trusted media organisation. It really is the place Australians turn to, the voice they trust.

Never is what I say truer than in times of emergency and disasters like bushfires, floods and cyclones, when the ABC is often the only source for the latest advice, warnings, news and information. Moreover, as mobile phone batteries run flat and power is lost, it's only the ABC, on a battery-powered or car radio, that links people to life-saving advice. For example, during the Dunalley bushfires in Tasmania five years ago, a lack of mobile services in the region hindered Tasmania Fire Service's ability to inform the public. Entire communities were cut off for days without power, but people could still access advice and warnings about the ever-changing fire front on the ABC. There's no doubt this service saved lives.

So how does the federal government reward the ABC for performing such a vital role, which no other media organisation could replace? With funding cut after funding cut, it's politics at its worst. No wonder the public is fed up with politicians. I emphasise again that the ABC presence in the regions is vital and priceless, especially as commercial media, looking to cut costs, are increasingly abandoning the regions and retreating to the major metropolitan centres. For instance, in Tasmania, just this month WIN axed its locally produced news bulletins, leaving a few journalists on the ground from Monday to Friday to gather content to send to Wollongong. There, almost 1,000 kilometres away, producers and presenters who may never have set foot in Tasmania will deliver the news, trashing the fundamental principle that local knowledge is a vital ingredient of journalism. On weekends there won't be any local content.

Meanwhile, in the north of the state there's a big question mark hanging over the future of the two newspapers published by Fairfax, which are subject to a takeover bid by the Nine Network, which has no appetite for a couple of regional newspapers in Tasmania. No wonder there's a palpable fear in newsrooms across the state that WIN's exit will be just the first domino to fall in the beginning of the end for local news in Tasmania. Imagine if the ABC, reeling from budget cuts, starts eyeing off its regional offices. Who would be left to tell the stories of the drought? Who would be left to cover the bushfires and natural disasters that don't happen Monday to Friday or in convenient proximity to the metropolitan newsrooms in Sydney and Melbourne? Once the ABC has gone, we'll all look back with regret at what was lost. (Time expired)