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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-07-03 Daily Xml
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Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (15:31): I rise today to speak about fears in our community about the federal Liberal government's lack of support for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The ABC is one of this nation's great cultural institutions. It is a familiar voice in country Australia; a neighbourhood noticeboard; a source of life-saving information in natural disasters; a bastion of accurate, well-researched and fearless journalism; a standard setter for the Australian language; a cop on the beat for the media industry; and a training ground for the best and brightest journalists across our nation.

I have always been a strong supporter of the ABC. As a child, my parents were not keen on us girls watching a lot of TV. The one exception was the ABC news. We would sit and watch the 7pm bulletin with mum and dad and were encouraged to ask questions about current affairs and look up in the dictionary any words we did not know. If mum drove us to school, we would listen to the local ABC radio in the morning, too. Growing up in regional Western Australia and then different towns in country New South Wales, the ABC was a reliable link to the world and brought us a sense of belonging even if we were new in town.

The ABC shaped and reflected the identity of the places I have lived, from Yanchep north of Perth to Kendall on the New South Wales mid-north coast and Alice Springs, the beating red heart of the nation. When I have worked overseas, in India, Cambodia and Africa, its international offerings have been a welcome and familiar friend. Considering my parents' rather restrictive approach to TV consumption and the fact that, when we did have tough times, the TV was the very first thing to be sold, my parents were shocked that I chose a career in television but completely unsurprised and quite delighted that I had the opportunity to start my media career with the ABC, albeit at the broadcaster's most remote regional posting at Karratha in Western Australia.

There is no better cadetship than at the ABC. Its first-year training is unrivalled in journalism education, and the list of graduates it has produced is a who's who of highly respected national and international reporters. My six years as a journalist at the ABC instilled in me the importance of ethics, rigorous fact-checking and the need always to assess both sides of the story and to report on matters that are important, not just ratings winners.

The ABC is not perfect. It makes mistakes, but when it does it accounts for them through thorough accountability processes that are not mirrored by any other media outlet in the nation. It often reports on its failures, which you will not find in any other media outlet. It is vital that the ABC never kowtows to governments of the day of any colour. Its value is in its service to people who are not serviced by the mainstream media: Indigenous communities, young people and, most importantly of course, our regional communities. Its value lies in its fearless, unbiased reporting.

The ABC is an incredibly valuable asset in Australia's cultural and media fabric, and it has deserved its place over many decades. So it is truly shocking that so many in the Liberal Party want to see the ABC privatised. This was not just some fringe element; it was a 2-1 vote at the Liberal Party's peak body, the Federal Council—2-1. Incredible.

The motion called for full privatisation of the ABC. Speakers suggested selling it to a media mogul or floating it on the stock market, suggesting it had saved the budget $1 billion a year, but at what real cost? And where was Steven Marshall on this? He did not speak. He did not say a word. Considering the ABC right here in Adelaide has been chopped again and again, it is amazing that the Liberal leader did not make a peep. He says he was there, so why did he not speak up and speak out for the ABC for the role it plays here in Adelaide and in regional Australia, and for the jobs it brings?

The Adelaide-based sound library was axed in March, prompted in part by staff cuts in the preceding years, which have seen local content production capacity dwindle to be almost non-existent. Then last month, three very experienced journalists lost their jobs in the newsroom, including a former Journalist of the Year. It comes as the ABC's indexation was frozen for three years, costing the ABC $84 million. That is now $254 million cut since 2014.

Criticism of the ABC is nothing new, but the growing power of the right wing in the Liberal Party is. If these are the ideas that that faction thinks are worthy, which have been labelled by others as total madness, then that is a serious worry. The ABC will always have to prove its worth, to check itself every day and ensure it delivers fearless and fair reporting, but starving and privatising the ABC is something that this side of the house will never stand for.

Time expired.

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