Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

A cut in funding to the ABC may not determine the outcome of the next election, but it does determine the sort of country we are and the sort of direction this nation is taking. This government has neither an agenda nor any real authority, but it does do good vendetta. It speaks every day against the unions or against better conditions for workers. It speaks against properly funding our schools, our hospitals, our TAFEs and our universities. But it also, in the last budget, has cut the national broadcaster and the capacity of the national broadcaster to fulfil its charter.

In the budget barely two weeks ago, $83.7 million was cut from the ABC in the form of an indexation freeze over the next three years. This cut is on top of the $254 million cut in 2014 and another $28 million in 2016. I think many Australians, as they listen to the parliamentary debate, have noticed this notorious cut to the ABC but wondered why on earth there is not more debate about it. So today my colleagues and I speak up to defend the ABC and to defend a deeper principle—the fundamental principle of Australia possessing a quality, well-funded, independent public broadcaster. Labor stand up for the ABC and the coalition attack it—and do they complain about the ABC. I have the latest example.

On 6 May this year, ABC News ran a story analysing the government's innovation agenda. On the next day, which happened to be the day before the budget, when you'd think the Prime Minister might have had something more to do with his time, he sent through a list of 11 complaints about the story. He couldn't even cut it down to a modest 10. You could just imagine it. The first thing Monday morning, poor old PMO staff are called into His Lordship's office and told: 'Take a letter to the ABC: Dear Sir,/Madam, here are 11 things wrong with last night's segment. Signed, Bitterly Disappointed, Point Piper.' And how many of his complaints prompted a correction? Was it 11? No. Was it 10? No. Was it five? No. It was just one. Did the Prime Minister, then, having scored a manifest victory to get one correction off the ABC, leave it there, flush with the glow of another success of the Turnbull government? Not at all! He rang up Senator Fifield and he said, 'Lodge a separate complaint.'

When it comes to the ABC, Senator Fifield is something of a vexatious litigant—the sort of chap who would take you to court for putting your recycling in his bin on bin night. This year he is averaging one complaint a month. In January he complained about Triple J moving the date of the Hottest 100 in response to a voluntary national survey. How dare they! He then complained about an Emma Alberici article on corporate tax. He complained about a Tonightly sketch insulting John Batman. He complained, because nothing escapes his stellar gaze, of a sketch on black comedy on the ABC Indigenous Facebook page. Then, of course, it was Emma Alberici again, and the Prime Minister's blockbuster, 'Eleven Things I Hate About The ABC'. I have to say, we do question his priorities as Minister for Communications, but you can't fault his commitment to letter writing and keeping Australia Post in business.

To the best of anyone's knowledge, the last time a communications minister referred a complaint about the ABC to the regulator was in 2003, when Senator Richard Alston complained about their coverage of the weapons of mass destruction in the Iraq war. I do say though, more seriously, if Senator Fifield wants to talk about complaints, why don't you focus on the 204 per cent increase in complaints on the NBN? These complaints though, as amusing as they are, are not just a harmless obsession; they come with real consequences. Cuts to the ABC have become a fact of life under conservative governments: the efficiency reviews, the faux competitive neutrality inquiries, the deals with One Nation to change the charter. The poor old National Party, once upon a time, under Minister Nixon, knew enough about the bush to understand that you had to back the ABC, but that doesn't even happen anymore.

To be fair, in the past the Liberals under Howard or under Fraser would at least offer a reason to cut back the ABC, but now they don't even bother. It has become an accepted part of the conservative political landscape in Australia to be into reducing and bashing the ABC. There is no doubt that the ABC in the last 20 years has been harmed by the ironically named 'culture wars' led by the right wing in Australian politics, but when you look at any genuinely independent survey, despite all the commercial and ideological attacks, the ABC still retains a level of credibility and trust unmatched by any other media organisation and indeed most institutions in Australian life. This is what the out-of-touch Prime Minister always gets wrong. He wanted to protect the banks from the scrutiny of a royal commission, and stubbornly refuses to support a national integrity commission, a federal ICAC to restore some faith in our system, but he still finds the time to attack the most trusted institution in our country.

The ABC is part of the fabric of our country. Every week 17 million of our fellow Australians consume some form of ABC content: the cricket and the footy on the radio, the brilliant drama made on shoestring budgets, AM, Radio National, Triple J, Play School, Behind the News, catching up on the latest or revisiting an old favourite on iView. The ABC is company on the long drives in the bush, and calm and comfort for older Australians in the late evenings. Our nation has grown up with the ABC. The first radio and TV services heard in the bush were courtesy of the ABC. In the Second World War, Australians learnt that we were at war listening to Prime Minister Menzies on the ABC. For many Australians the great news of VE Day, celebrated in Martin Place, was broadcast on the ABC. We have all grown up with the ABC. I remember as a child knowing that when you could hear that majestic fanfare theme song of the news coming on, it was time to start to preparing for bed. Even if we don't always listen to the ABC, at different times in the cycle of life's patterns we come back to it. It has a far greater responsibility to cover in our far-flung nation, urban and regional, than any other media organisation, and it does cost money.

I am deeply concerned that this government is perpetuating a malaise and a disillusionment within the ABC about the future of the ABC. It is fundamental to the health of our democracy. I acknowledge the importance of commercial media operations, the commercial mastheads of print and the role of active journalism in our daily lives, but nothing can replace the central role in our democracy of an independent, not-for-profit, well-funded public broadcaster. Any politician who says that they've never been frustrated with the ABC has never been in politics, but if you can't put the personal aside and put the nation's interest first then you shouldn't be in politics. I believe in the ABC's role in our democracy. In the words of the first ABC TV news broadcast 71 years ago:

This is the news that you don't have to fetch and carry. … The view you can get without having to go to your window.

The Labor opposition with me as leader will defend the independence of the ABC, and a Labor government with me as Prime Minister will defend the independence of the ABC. We've always ensured the ABC has the resources and freedom to do its job. We start by saying loud and clear to this government: this $83 million cut should not go ahead. When it comes to the next election, the Australian people will have a very clear choice. They can vote for the conservatives and the continued diminution of the ABC. If at the next election the ABC is viewed by the conservatives just through the prism of some sort of free-market obsession, I promise you, Government: you do not understand how Australians think. The ABC is an 85-year-old institution. It's a friend that Australians can count on through good times and in bad times. We say to all of those Australians who care about the ABC, who hold the ABC as an important and valuable part of their lives and our society: the Labor Party will stand alongside the ABC, win this argument and stop these cuts.

See this speech in context