Page 4175 - Week 13 - Thursday, 27 November 2014

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will cause the most outrage. They have achieved their aim, haven’t they, today? The management of ACT have achieved their aim. They have got Green and Labor politicians in outrage in the parliament here spruiking their cause, doing exactly what ACT management want to achieve from this. It is a sort of fever being whipped up around these efficiency dividends, rather than management of the ABC saying, “We understand.”As Ross Solly said in his article today in the Canberra Weekly, “News and current affairs, an area where ABC often led the industry, is tightening its belt. I maintain the ABC cannot be immune from across-the-board budget cuts.”

A respected journalist like Ross Solly says the ABC cannot be immune from across-the-board budget cuts. He acknowledges it; he recognises it. He is a very well respected ABC journalist from the ACT who has worked in 666 and has worked on the 7.30 Report. He recognises that the ABC cannot be immune given the financial crisis that was left to the coalition government. He and others should recognise that it is a management decision that is trying to create a frenzy and some heat around this issue, rather than applying reasonable, sound efficiency dividends like department officials federally and locally are required to do in just about every budget.

What we have here is the ABC management achieving exactly what they wanted. They have got a Greens politician and a Labor politician who are going to play politics with this and use this for their own political purposes. That is what this is about. So congratulations; well done. Enjoy the sugar hit of politics on this. As you try and save the ACT budget and you look for savings, remember this moment. (Time expired.)

MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Hanson, you have not moved your amendment.

MR HANSON: I move my amendment as circulated:

Omit all words after “That this Assembly”, substitute:

“(1) notes:

(a) the high quality and important function of local ABC news content in the ACT;

(b) the ABC is a Federal Government, not an ACT Government, responsibility;

(d) Mr Rattenbury’s repeated support of efficiency dividends in the ACT Budget;

(e) that 4.6 percent efficiencies applied over five years to the ABC are consistent or lower than efficiencies applied by Federal and ACT Labor Governments to numerous public institutions and departments, including health and education;

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