Page 3005 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018
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rights to the 2017-18 season were shared between the ABC and Fox Sports. The W-League used to be exclusively on the ABC, and I am concerned that continued cuts to the ABC will put the availability of the W-League to the broader public at risk.
I must acknowledge that the decision to pull these programs fell to the ABC board, as it did with all the program changes I have described. But the sheer quantum of cuts forces these decisions to be considered and to be made.
It is for the reasons I have described that all MLAs should declare where they stand on privatisation, which, as I have previously stated, amounts to funding cuts to the ABC. Due to the impact on Canberra that the cuts to the ABC have had and will continue to have, I think it is only fair that the voters of Canberra know where their elected representatives stand on this issue. I think that members should be up-front about this. It is topical, given that it was a substantive motion passed at the recent Liberal Party federal council. We are surely willing to come in here and state our position. If members do support privatising the ABC, I ask them to put on the record which local programs they would like to see cut, so that voters can make an informed decision about what they think of that position.
These cuts to the ABC are bad for Canberra: for our local identity, for our ability to have local information and for our local democracy. In democratic societies like Australia, we use the news media to help us make decisions about who will represent us in parliament and make laws on our behalf. A diverse and objective news media is essential to helping us make the right decision. The media is essential to a healthy democracy for two key reasons: it helps to ensure that citizens make responsible, informed choices rather than acting out of ignorance or misinformation; and widely available and accurate information serves an important oversight function by ensuring that elected representatives uphold their oaths of office and carry out the wishes of those who elected them.
I have spoken very specifically about the Canberra context because we are here in the Assembly and that is appropriate. But it is also relevant to recognise the broader role of the ABC, and the role the ABC plays in regional parts of Australia in particular. Regional and rural communities probably have an even stronger affiliation to the ABC than some urban dwellers, although that is probably less so these days as more services become available in the bush than there used to be when, for example, I was a child.
We should also recognise the role of the ABC in the Asia-Pacific region. The ABC is widely recognised across this part of the world both for the transmissions it makes and for the reporting it does. In countries where press freedom is not as powerful as it is here in Australia, the role that the ABC has played in reporting on matters that have perhaps struggled to get mainstream coverage has been incredibly important both for Australia to understand our place in the region and for giving a voice to people who are taking different views from some of the more authoritarian governments across the region. We must not lose sight of the value of that.
Australia seeks to be a middle power in the global geopolitical setting. Certainly that is how we seek to position ourselves in the United Nations. I think the ABC is an important part of the diplomatic effort Australia mounts in that international context.
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