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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2062 ..

MR CORBELL (continuing):

For all these reasons, we, as representatives of the people of Canberra, should add our voice to help defend our ABC, because it is not just yours; it is not just mine; it is everyone's; and everyone has an equal say in it and an equal share in it. Unlike other media operations which are owned by wealthy individuals or small groups of people who have the money and the willingness to invest, the ABC is owned by all. It contributes very importantly to our city.

In closing, I want to make one final point. The ABC in Canberra provides a vital service. As representatives, we rely very heavily on the national broadcaster, along with the other independent private broadcasters, to communicate what we believe should happen in our city and what we believe is the most important course for our city to take. When we have a cut of $55m which could very well, in the end, threaten the ability of the national broadcaster to get that message out in an independent and vigorous way, then we ultimately lose as well. For all of these reasons, we should stake our claim here today to oppose the Federal Liberal Government's cuts to the ABC for what they mean to Canberra, for what they mean for our community and for what they mean by threatening the viability, integrity and independence of our national broadcaster.

MRS CARNELL (Chief Minister) (12.09): The Government strongly supports an independent national broadcaster, and we were certainly disappointed, as I think various press releases and other things that we put out indicate, with the Federal Government's cuts to the ABC. I do believe that Mr Corbell's motion today is politically motivated. The reality of it is that we did not see the same sort of reaction from that side of the house, which was then this side of the house, when the ABC cut their local television programming or television station out of Canberra. What we did hear was a deafening silence.

What we have seen over a quite long period of time now from the ABC under the Federal Liberal Government and the previous Federal Labor Government, when there was a Labor government here in the ACT as well, is significant centralisation of services from the ABC. This is not something new, Mr Speaker. We have seen regional services being depleted over quite a number of years now; we have seen services centralised in Sydney, Melbourne and other capital cities; we have seen an empty television studio over there at Dickson for quite a number of years now. Who was it who went to Sydney to see the hierarchy of the ABC when the ABC locally cut out the local evening program here in Canberra? It was Mr Humphries. Mr Humphries went to Sydney and had a meeting with, I think it was, Paddy Conroy at that stage. I am sure that Mr Humphries will speak about that later. We are certainly not happy to see cuts in any Federal or Commonwealth government service, especially one such as the ABC.

It is certainly true that regional radio and regional television are absolutely essential for a country as big and as diverse as Australia. But it is not just that regional services such as our local television service have suffered under a previous Labor government; it is also things such as Radio Australia. Recently - in fact, the press release says that it was 23 April - I put out a press release urging the Federal Government not to take the path they were taking with regard to Radio Australia. I suggested to them that cutting funds from $23m to just $7.2m would force the ABC to have some sort of half-baked service that probably would not be worth continuing.

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