Page 5137 - Week 17 - Wednesday, 12 December 1990
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establishment it has contributed significantly to quality media for Australian youngsters. Members will probably be aware that basically its role is to provide for a high quality production process and production stimulant for children's television, and to make that television relevant and enjoyable.
It is even more important, Mr Speaker, given the decision by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in recent days to reduce significantly the amount it spends on education programs. Members on both sides of this chamber will be, I hope, regretful of the fact that the ABC has chosen to reduce its expenditure on education in its budget. Some of the younger members, some of us who have not been around for much more than 31 years, might recall that ABC education programs, both on television and on radio, were - certainly in my schools - an important part of the contribution towards the range of educational opportunities offered to students, and, particularly so far as music education was concerned, it was very good to have those programs available. Unfortunately, it seems that the next generation of Australian children might be deprived of those.
But to return to the question of the Australian Children's Television Foundation, the foundation has achieved considerable success in the short period of time since its establishment. It has produced a number of highly acclaimed works - Winners, Kaboodle and the Touch the Sun series, which have won national and international awards. In the last year or so there have been another two or so important works. It has had two animated series, Kaboodle 2 and The Greatest Tune On Earth, and a further work called Round the Twist, which is not, despite the title, based in a small legislature in the early 1990s, but is a 13-part drama production based on the short stories of Paul Jennings, a very popular writer of children's books.
Mr Duby: Where is Chubby Checker?
MR HUMPHRIES: No, not Chubby Checker.
Those have been very successful, I am told. Members might even have seen them, if they happened to get up early on Sunday mornings when some of them have been screened. Members might also be aware that, only earlier this year, a 90-minute telemovie called Sky Trackers was shot in the ACT. It was set at the space tracking station at Tidbinbilla. The $1.8m film has been sold to the Disney channel in the United States, and it was delivered at the end of September this year. I think a sale to Australian networks is proceeding very soon.
One last thing I would like to mention is an exciting development in the early childhood program of the foundation. It is a highly imaginative and innovative television series, of 26 one-hour episodes, for three- to eight-year-olds - an age group which is unfortunately often
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