Rebekha Sharkie (Mayo, Centre Alliance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A year ago, I became the first member of parliament to receive the Defenders Badge from ABC Friends National. It was presented to me by Sue Pinnock, the ABC Friends South Australia spokesperson, in recognition of my support for our public broadcaster and for my advocacy for restoring the $334 million which has been cut from the ABC since 2014. This included lobbying very hard for the restoration of the $84 million indexation that will occur over the next three years. That's another $84 million cut from the ABC. I wear the Defenders Badge with pride. Everyone in my community that I talk to is certainly a big supporter of the ABC. In fact, more than 70 per cent of Australians tune in to the ABC every week. More than 80 per cent of us consider the ABC to be a trusted source of news. The erosion of ABC funding by successive governments is a source of concern to many. Public funding for the ABC has fallen by nearly 30 per cent in real terms in the last 30 years, and hundreds of ABC jobs have been lost in the pursuit of efficiency.

We saw media reforms in the last parliament. Those reforms went through and what we've seen is a withdrawal of media voices in regional Australia, with the closing of television newsrooms and savage job cuts in regional newspapers. My Centre Alliance colleagues and I did support the reforms, but we negotiated an ACCC inquiry into digital platforms and a $60 million package to deliver the Regional and Small Publishers Jobs and Innovation Package. Round 1 of that package has funded 70 cadetships, 66 journalism scholarships and 29 publisher grants. The ABC has responded to the exodus, committing to $30 million in two years to put on 80 extra regional staff. This is good news for regional Australia and good news for regional South Australia. In light of the government's indexation freeze, you have to question whether the commitment is sustainable.

The ABC broadcasts from 46 regional and periurban areas, and Centre Alliance supports its vision to expand regional services. I believe that a modest $25 million annual funding injection could fund and equip 150 new staff to fill the gaps in regional coverage. Yesterday I met with the ABC Friends National to talk about the challenges confronting our national broadcaster, and indeed they are significant. Centre Alliance backs the ABC. We will always back the ABC and we back regional Australia. We call on the government to properly fund our national broadcaster and to invest in regional services.