Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the motion moved by Senator Conroy concerning the independence of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. For all the shouting of Senator Ronaldson I hardly think someone with broadcast experience being on the board of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation can be described as a sectional interest. It is a novel idea that the only person left on the board with broadcasting experience should be determined to be a person with a sectional interest.

It is very clear that under this government—under the Howard government—the ABC has been seen as one of the last stalwarts of our democracy. That is because the ABC does reflect some sort of critical assessment of our democracy and civil society, and for that crime—for being a bulwark for public service values, for being a bulwark for the community and for the values that Australia holds dear: freedom of speech, independent opinion, fairness, tolerance and justice—it is deemed to be biased. It is because the Howard government regards the ABC as being biased—because it does not share the values of the Howard government—that there has been this attack on the ABC and the removal of the staff representative from the board.

This has been a systemic attack since the Howard government came to power, beginning with reducing funding which has meant that there has been a retreat from the regions. We have lost the capacity for the ABC to broadcast news from the regions, especially at weekends. There has been a move which has resulted in the reduction of hours of Australian drama on the ABC, and the reduction in funding has meant the removal of the last independent person on the board. This will make way for the government to introduce advertising to the ABC which, in turn, will lead to the advertising and promotion of junk food, big car advertisements and all the advertisements of corporate Australia, which will undermine the capacity of the ABC to do its job, which is, in fact, to provide some independent journalism in Australia.

The abhorrent thing with the Howard government is that the very people who stand with the flag, who wear the wattle and who swear that they are the one and true upholders of the nation are the ones who have systemically undermined the independence and the traditions of every single institution from the judiciary through to the ABC. That is precisely what is going on here with this government attack on the ABC. We all know that in the new digital environment the capacity to broadcast and multichannel is going to be very expensive and so, by giving the ABC the right to do it and then taking away the funding capacity to do it, this is the Howard government’s way of undermining the capacity of the ABC to cover the media landscape that is required to give effect to its charter—to inform the country and be a national broadcaster for all Australians.

The ABC is our ABC. It belongs to the people. It does not belong to the Howard government but worse still, it does not belong to the radical philosophy of the Howard government which has led to this huge gap between the rich and the poor in this country, which has seen a bias in favour of privatisation and individualism, a loss of interest in the public interest and of acting in the public interest. The ABC acts in the public interest. The independent board member—the staff representative—should remain on that board and the government should desist from badgering and intimidating people associated with the ABC and accusing them of bias.

If there is a bias in this country it is the bias that the Howard government brings to all our national institutions and undermines our strength in terms of freedom of speech and freedom of association in this country. I want the ABC to stay independent. I want it to stay as our national broadcaster reflecting this whole country and not be forced into commercial advertising like other commercial television in this country. I want it to be what the Australian community wants it to be, and that is the voice of Australia, not the voice of the narrow values of the Howard government.