Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

In order to satisfy Senator Bilyk: no, I wasn't at federal council; I was with my family in Tasmania. It is a service that is absolutely valued by Tasmanians in regional communities, which Senator Bilyk also represents, and many people in the more densely populated areas as well. The MPI sets out for us to discuss the need for the public broadcasting entities in Australia to be strong. The first point it refers to is the need for them to be well funded. I think it's important to put on record the facts around the funding of the ABC and SBS, and the fact that this financial year $1.3 billion of funding has been allocated to our two public broadcasting entities, taking into account that SBS also attracts some commercial funding through the provision of the ability to sell commercial advertising spots—something that not everyone in the community agreed with but which enabled SBS to make ends meet a little bit better.

Another point that the Minister for Communications made in question time today was around the fact that funding for the ABC in particular is set over a three-year basis, and so the particular funding round we have at the moment is coming to a conclusion. As Senator Bilyk has already noted, funding for the upcoming triennium has been set with a pause on indexation. The fact remains, though, that over the period from 2019-20 to 2021-22 $3.2 billion of funding has been allocated to the ABC. That puts into context this claim of a cut that has been put out there and screamed about by the opposition—the fact that no more than 0.26c in any dollar of funding for that period is being held by way of this indexation pause.