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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2067 ..

Mr Moore: A perfectly reasonable Freudian slip.

MR HUMPHRIES: Well, it could well be. In fact, I know that Mr Berry has maintained in this place that the corporatisation of bodies such as ACTEW is effectively the privatisation of them. Presumably, Mr Corbell would argue, pursuant to Mr Berry's line, that the ABC has already been privatised. I do not know.

Mr Corbell: Why do you not just address the issue before you?

MR HUMPHRIES: Address the issue; of course, Mr Corbell, let us address the issue. Mr Speaker, the comments that I want to make are very clear. I, together with my colleagues, am quick to acknowledge the importance of the ABC as a player in many facets of the life of the ACT. My party is on record, repeatedly, as having stood up for the role that the ABC has played in the community of Canberra and will continue to speak up for that role, irrespective of what Federal government it may be that is engineering changes in the ABC and cuts to the quality or level of service of the ABC such as to impact on this Territory.

The ABC plays a whole range of important roles in the ACT community. It provides entertainment; it is a source of information; it has one of the few talk-back facilities based in the ACT. It is a matter of some regret that some of the other radio stations in this Territory at the moment tend to play talk-back from Sydney, with some fairly nauseating and opinionated commentators from Sydney. I think I would have agreement with that if I moved such an amendment to the motion.

Perhaps most importantly, the ABC is one of the relatively few decent mirrors on ACT society. It is a way of our knowing where we stand, what we are doing, what progress we are making, where we are falling down and what we as a community are achieving and doing. I think anybody who stays in this city for a period of time is able to look at ABC television, but more particularly to listen to ABC radio which has played an important role at that local level in the ACT, and get a good idea of what is happening in this Territory and get an idea of the depth of creativity, innovation and achievement that is taking place in the Territory. There are often relatively few sources of information about those things that are available elsewhere. For that reason, I am very quick to rise to defend the role of the ABC and to urge this community to act collectively to protect the ABC's role in this town.

Mr Speaker, I think the point needs to be made very forcefully, as it was made by the Chief Minister, that it is not just the Federal Liberal Government - the word "Liberal" is very deliberately used in the motion by Mr Corbell - which has played a role in reducing the quality of service to the people of the ACT over the last few years. Mr Corbell's speech - and no doubt this will apply to the media release he will put out subsequent to this debate - made no mention of the role that the Federal Labor Government played in downgrading the quality of ABC services in this town. It is, I think, quite wrong to talk about cuts to the ABC without making reference to that.

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