Deborah O'Neill (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, it's not too much of a stretch to indicate, on the public record, that the result of your last efficiency cut efforts was very significant loss of jobs and loss of capacity. In your response to Senator Macdonald, you indicated that you were putting people on the board. The fact that people in particular positions make a very big difference to what an organisation can do is well known to you and I and every Australian who's interested in the ABC. We have a situation where the public broadcaster is now 800 jobs short of what it was when you arrived, despite your jobs and growth narrative. How can you possibly stand here in the chamber and pretend that a further cut, a further efficiency dividend—a cut of $83.7 million—will not drive further job losses at the ABC?