Page 495 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 8 March 2006
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
significantly increased locally relevant material, with the ABC proposing to appoint significant numbers of additional online producers and journalists in metropolitan and regional areas.
Funding is needed for producing content that motivates digital television uptake. ABC digital broadcasts are available to around 96 per cent of the population and it is proposed by the ABC to stimulate public interest through an extra 200 hours of digital-only content for ABC2 and ABC Broadband. Also, funding is important for the investment that it presages in quality Australian television content. In recent years, due to the need for cost savings, the ABC has had to reduce the quantity of home-grown content that it broadcasts. It is now time to reverse that trend and for the ABC to take a leadership role in providing the Australian community with a greater range of high-quality landmark programs made by independent producers.
The ABC provides an independent voice, free not just from commercials but certainly free from political interference. We know that that independence is not tainted by advertising, sponsorships or other deals of which we might not be aware. It is as a result of that independence and our faith in the independence of the ABC as a public broadcaster that we lend it our greatest support. I think that those of us in politics know only too well the role which an independent media and the media generally play in our democratic processes. Media organisations have enormous power to influence public debate, public feeling and public perceptions and, indeed, to effect policy outcomes and at times, of course, to impact severely on the reputation, standing and perhaps even existence of governments. That is their power.
The need for an independent, objective, ethical and trustworthy media, which we hope and expect of the ABC, is fundamentally important. That is a role which the ABC has traditionally played. From time to time, I am sure, each of us has a view on how well or otherwise the ABC has performed that role or function but, generally speaking, it is a role that is delivered particularly well in the array of local, national and international services that the ABC does provide, including of course its full range of national programs—Triple J, as has already been mentioned, Classic FM, Radio National and NewsRadio.
The ABC has a very wide-ranging sweep of stations around Australia, including 666 radio here. It has a comprehensive internet presence, with over a million and a half pages of content, international broadcasting, 24,000 hours of independent news and current affairs a year, and digital services, and there is not a single one of us that would question that Canberra would be a much poorer community without the ABC, as would the rest of Australia.
We are hoping that, through the increased funding which is requested in the submission and which goes to the motion which we are debating today, not only that the ABC will not be forced to cut content, programs or services but also, so far as the ACT or Canberra were concerned, that it might be able to enhance the level of content that it delivers to the people of the ACT. That is a point which Mr Mulcahy touched on, and I do not disagree with Mr Mulcahy on this point. I am one of those that remember, but I do not know how long ago it was, that the ABC television news or the national news within Canberra was once preceded by five minutes of Canberra news. I think that was probably 20 years ago
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .