Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the eve of the 2013 federal election, Tony Abbott, who was then the leader, said there would be no cuts to the ABC or SBS under a coalition government. The ABC has lost $783 million in funding since the coalition came to power that year, including the $84 million cut in 2018, when the current Prime Minister was Treasurer. My mother and my grandmum both worked at the ABC in Adelaide—and I remember taking the long bus ride after school out to Collinswood—which was then a bustling workplace. But this government's cuts have led to round after round of job cuts at our ABC and fewer local services for South Australians. There is now no ABC television production in South Australia. The Stateline program was cut; newsroom jobs were slashed; radio bulletins decreased; the sound library, with its extensive taxpayer funded music collection, was closed and its collection simply given away; the state editor role was cut; and there aren't even receptionists to answer a phone call at the Adelaide office—calls now go through Sydney.

All of these cuts not only mean that young South Australians hoping to enter journalism as a career face a bigger hurdle; they also mean that South Australians don't have the local news, the local television and the local radio services that they deserve. South Australians have contacted me horrified over the cuts to their ABC. Helen, a resident of a local nursing home in Woodville, told me, 'I find that in the current difficult times, the ABC programing and coverage has helped me so much to keep going happily, despite isolation and the sadness of the bushfires.' Kerrie, from Henley Beach, told me that she values that the ABC truly reflect our country's rich variety of Indigenous, multicultural and diverse people.

The media industry has been hit hard over the last few years, especially during the current pandemic, and many outlets have closed. That makes the ABC all the more valuable to Australians, especially those living outside the big eastern state capitals. The ABC is our national carrier. It belongs to every Australian, regardless of where they live. South Australians deserve a comprehensive local and properly funded ABC, and they're not getting it from this government.