Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join my Labor colleagues in condemning the Abbott government for the further cuts to the ABC and SBS announced last week over the next five years, which will bring the total cuts made by this government to the ABC and SBS to over $500 million.

No amount of spin will mask the fact that the cuts represent another broken election promise made by the Prime Minister on the eve of last year's election that there would be no cuts to the ABC or SBS. The cuts will inevitably lead to programming and production being Sydney-centric. For regional and rural Australia and the smaller states, the impact of the cuts will be devastating, denying those communities local jobs and local content.

In South Australia, up to 150 jobs are likely to be lost, as is production of local news and current affairs programs, including the popular Friday evening current affairs program 7.30 SA. Again the Abbott government is turning its back on SA, and again South Australian federal Liberal MPs are either nowhere to be seen or trying to pass the blame on to ABC management for any cuts.

Responsibility for job losses or local content cuts rests fairly and squarely with the Abbott government, which is proving to be no friend of the ABC, and South Australians know it. I call on all South Australian federal Liberal MPs to stand up for South Australia, stand up for the people that elected them and oppose the funding cuts to the ABC.