Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister for Employment (Senator Abetz) to questions without notice asked by Senator Urquhart, the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate (Senator Wong) and Senators Ludlam and Xenophon today relating to funding for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Here we are today where we have around 400, maybe more, jobs to go out of the ABC. We asked the minister questions about the broken promise of this Prime Minister Abbott that is now directly responsible for over 400 job cuts to the ABC. What did we get from him? We got that it is a decision of the ABC. It is absolutely outrageous. We got no answers about jobs. We got no compassion from the minister who is the Minister for Employment, no compassion about the 400 people who are going to lose their jobs over the next couple of years, because his government gave the false story the day before the election when the now Prime Minister of Australia said to the Australian people, 'There will be no cuts to the ABC.'

Here we are today with 400-plus jobs gone from the ABC. That is what it means. We have a Prime Minister who told Australia a pack of lies. There is no other word for it. He lied to the Australian people.