Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

By that I take it that the only set of amendments are my amendments?

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: That's correct.

I was under the understanding that there were other amendments being circulated but they, obviously, haven't happened.

The TEMPORARY CHAIR: Yours are the only ones, Senator Hanson-Young.

Thank you for that clarification. Could the minister explain to the chamber why the government has decided to cut $83 million from the ABC budget, as outlined in the budget last year? The reason that this is important in relation to this issue is that this bill is meant to be looking after and supporting public interest journalism yet, at the same time as giving money to small publishers through an innovation fund in rural and regional areas, we're seeing the government cut funding to our public broadcaster. It's going to make it even harder for the ABC to carry on their good services in rural and regional Australia if they don't have the funding. The government is willing to put money on the table for these rural and small publishers through this innovation fund—notwithstanding their ridiculous ideological blindness to locking out organisations like The Guardian,The New Daily and others—but, at the same time, as we learned in last night's budget, they have made a cut to the ABC of $83 million. Could the minister please explain why this cut is being made and how it is going to impact on the delivery of public interest journalism in rural and regional Australia.