Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Three times he said 'cuts to the ABC'. So even Minister Johnston on that side has accepted there are cuts to the ABC. He put it down. He said it in Hansard.

The questions that I asked Senator Abetz were about the 400 jobs, but there was no compassion from him at all. What we heard from Senator Abetz was only, 'Nobody has lost their job.' I just cannot describe how those 400-plus people, those workers at the ABC, would be feeling about their minister who is saying nobody has lost their job when he knows very well that those workers, 400 of them at least, are going to lose their jobs. All the Minister for Employment can say is, 'Nobody has lost their job.' Well, Minister Abetz, they will lose their jobs because of the cuts that your government has made to the ABC, cuts that Prime Minister Abbott said the day before the election would not occur—'No cuts to the ABC'.