Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Minister for Regional Services) Share this | Hansard source

As I said, in instigating a Senate inquiry into this very decision at the time and questioning the then managing director in Senate estimates over and over again about this appalling decision, they need to reinstate it; they need to revisit the decision. The ABC itself, in evidence to the Senate inquiry, which is in Hansard, stated that budget cuts were not the reason that the board made that decision. We had Ms Guthrie saying that resources were to be redirected towards better technology because they thought that short-wave was century-old technology and that we needed to get with the times. Well, it's century-old technology that's simple and that works. It's a very typical Ultimo view from the ABC when it comes to essential services for rural and regional Australia.