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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (25 June) . . Page.. 2071 ..

MR MOORE: I understand why you need to call me to order, Mr Speaker. I assure you that I will not go down that path any further.

MR SPEAKER: I would not suggest you do, Mr Moore.

MR MOORE: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I realise that I am expressing some heresy there. Rather than be burnt at the stake, I will come to the core of the matter; that is, we should support this motion in its current form. I take Mr Humphries's point because he is right. Labor were not kind to the ABC, and in a sense they also should be held accountable as far as that goes. But the reality is that at the moment we have a Federal Liberal government, and we ought to send them a very clear message that they are promise breakers. This is not just an ordinary promise; it is about one of the fundamentals of democracy, and that is, ensuring that there is a reasonably free reporting of what goes on in our democratic processes. To me, that is why the ABC is most important. It also is important because of a whole range of other things in relation to entertainment and even sport; and I know that reaches a lot of people.

Mr Speaker, the reality is that this motion put by Mr Corbell is an important motion that is part of the chipping away process; it is part of saying to the Federal Government, "You have to understand that Australians all over the place do not like what you are doing here. We do not like the way you are governing us with respect to this issue" - and, for some of us, there are other issues as well - "As far as this issue goes, we do not like the way you are going about it; we do not like the fact that you lied to us; and we do not like the fact that you are undermining our democracy". That is why I am supporting the motion as it stands.

MR CORBELL (12.43): I want just quickly to address Mr Humphries's amendment. I am glad to hear that the Greens and Mr Moore are not willing to support that amendment. I think it is appropriate, and I thank them for that support. I thank them for that support because what this motion is intended to do is to say that there was a very explicit promise made by the Liberal Party before the last election. I quote the words of Senator Richard Alston in the Better Broadcasting document of the Liberal Party in 1996:

The Coalition will maintain existing levels of Commonwealth funding to the ABC. We will continue to support triennial funding which has allowed the ABC to plan for the future with a greater degree of financial certainty.

That promise was broken, full stop. Mr Humphries's amendment trivialises this motion, because it tries to ignore the fact that the Liberals tried to defuse the issue of funding to the ABC as an election issue by making that very explicit promise, but then they broke it. He tries to defuse that point. If Mr Humphries wants to go down this line of saying, "Let us include the Federal Labor Government", where do you stop? Do you want to put in the Fraser Government as well? I seem to recall they cut services not only to the ABC but also to the Public Service. For heaven's sake, where do we go? It is just a deliberate attempt by this Government to defend the actions of their colleagues on the hill and to defuse the motion. I am very glad that both Mr Moore and the Greens have indicated their support for the motion as it stands and not for Mr Humphries's amendment.

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