Page 4177 - Week 13 - Thursday, 27 November 2014
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MR CORBELL: So apparently we can achieve these so-called efficiency dividends—cuts, efficiency dividends or whatever they may be.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, resume your seat. Stop the clock, please. Mr Hanson and Mr Doszpot, I did ask for Mr Corbell to stop interjecting and to let you, Mr Hanson, speak without interruption. I am asking you to do the same for Mr Corbell. The noise level in here is getting just too much. I cannot even hear what Mr Corbell is saying.
MR CORBELL: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. They do not like being called out on it—that is very clear—but the facts are that the justification for this cut on the ABC is apparently set out in a report that we should accept, even though it is not a public document. It is a secret document that is not being made available to anyone in our community. It is an absurd and outrageous position from those opposite. Of course we all understand that what this is is a direct cut and an attack on the ABC and a belated breaking of an election commitment by Tony Abbott, supported by his cronies here in the Assembly.
Our thoughts go out to all the ABC and SBS staff who have either lost, or now live in fear of losing, their jobs following this announcement. In the longer term, our concern is for the damage that such indiscriminate cuts do to the quality and content of broadcasting in Australia and in our region.
We can all have our views on different aspects of the ABC and SBS. We can have our views on different personalities, on the choice of programming, even on local political reporting. In a community and a democracy as vibrant as Australia’s, you would not want it any other way.
With the challenge of catering to such vast diversity, how many public organisations could boast these quite outstanding statistics? Nearly nine out of every 10 Australians believe the ABC provides a valuable or very valuable service. Nearly three-quarters of Australia’s adult population engages with the ABC every week. By subsidising the ABC and the SBS as national public goods, we create institutions which provide benefits nationwide—in our regions, to children and young people, to those with special interests such as the arts, world affairs, religion, academia, rural and agricultural issues, and to local communities like our very own.
Let us look at the Mr Fluffy issue as a great example. Despite its devastating effects, little is known outside Canberra about the extent of this significant problem. But what is known is in no small part thanks to the reporting of the ABC, such as Radio National and the local edition of the 7.30 Report—both now, we know, in the firing line. Unfortunately, the decision of Tony Abbott is driven by the same values which have made the Liberals’ federal budget so unfair. They seek to ignore the unique qualities of the ABC and SBS.
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