James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Triple j should be sold and there should be ads on the ABC. It's simple. When we get to the model of the ABC, it's very important to understand the history of where the Australian Broadcasting Corporation comes from. From its commencement back in 1932 as the Australian Broadcasting Commission and, further back in history, its commencement in 1928 as the National Broadcasting Service, it was established to fill a gap in the market. We're talking about a period of Australian history when the medium was just emerging. The cricket scores weren't broadcast live from Lords; they were actually sent by telegram. The radio wireless operators would read out the telegrams as if they were live scores being replayed from London. That was 90 years ago. The media market has moved on since then. Since then, there has been invented this wonderful thing called the internet, which means every device like the smartphone I'm holding is a device for us to seek news, to be a purveyor of news, to transmit news and to give an informed opinion on the world.

During a particularly boring part of the Senate sitting while the Greens were speaking before, I was reading The Times and The Daily Telegraph online, seeing the latest that's happening overseas. That's very important. We find this to be a very patronising approach from those on the Left, who think there has to be a taxpayer funded national broadcasting service. There actually doesn't have to be a taxpayer funded national broadcasting service. In my home state of Queensland, back in the 1920s, we had taxpayer owned butcher shops. Even in the town of Babinda, there was a government owned pub. Society has moved on since then. The failure of the ABC and the board, including the chair, is to understand how Australians get their news and that there is a plurality in the media market. For the ABC to constantly and consistently portray themselves as being the sole arbiter of all that is right and just in this world is just an example of this poor, sanctimonious approach they take to people who live outside the Canberra bubble.

What the ABC fail to understand, especially when they don't understand those on the centre-Right of politics, is that I don't want a right-wing ABC. I don't want a left-wing ABC. If there is to be an ABC, it should be an impartial national broadcaster. But, sadly, the ABC consistently fail to understand that people voted for Scott Morrison as Prime Minister. People like Scott Morrison as Prime Minister. The ABC just don't get that. When I ask the question, 'Name one conservative commentator or journalist on the ABC,' the Left go feral and say, 'Why are you asking that question?' It's because consistently there are no conservative commentators or journalists on the ABC. I just want one conservative commentator on the ABC—just one. Give me one. The fact that the ABC consistently fail to do that shows to me that they are snubbing those quiet, aspirational Australians. So the question must be: why should the taxpayers pay for it? Why should the taxpayers pay for a national broadcasting service that fails to consistently appreciate how most Australians live their lives?

I'm someone who actually is a fan of the ABC. I like the ABC. I think the ABC should be reformed to save itself. I think we need to sell off the inner-city headquarters, sell off Ultimo, that grand palace that would make a German prince blush, and sell off the headquarters in Brisbane and Sydney and move all of the staff out of the CBDs to suburbs. Queensland would love to see the ABC staff based in Beenleigh or Burpengary or further west to Thargomindah—somewhere like that. It should get out of the CBD. That would help those staff realise that that latte bubble is not how most Australians live.

Secondly, I think there should be a review of the charter and the governing act. There hasn't been a detailed review for some time. That review should look into what the purpose of a taxpayer funded national broadcasting service is and, if there is to be one, should there be ads on it? I think there should be ads on the ABC. There are ads on the SBS. Certainly the quality of programming on the SBS has not been diluted in any way or form. But, also, Triple J should be sold. It goes to why the ABC was set up in the first place. It was set up to fill a gap in the market. Triple J is, by all accounts, I'm told, a successful radio station that garners a particular demographic, especially those who are 15 to 25. Funnily enough, those between the ages of 15 and 25 have quite a lot of money to spend. So you'd find that advertisers would be very keen to advertise on Triple J. It could be self-funding. So why don't we just sell it off and let it be self-funded? You will have that quality music that those opposite seem so obsessed with, but it would mean the taxpayers aren't funding Triple J.

The third point on how we should reform the ABC goes to the recruitment of their staff. There are many fine and good people who work at the ABC; I acknowledge that. But there is a groupthink that has taken over that organisation, and it has got particularly worse. These are staff who work together—they're lovely people, but they think the same. They think Scott Morrison should not be Prime Minister. It's this Scott Morrison derangement syndrome. They can't believe that Bill Shorten didn't win the last election and that Scott Morrison is somehow Prime Minister. They've never, ever come to terms with that. We see that most particularly with some of the recent programs. I will mention Four Corners. A couple of weeks ago, Four Corners attacked the Prime Minister because he has a friend who has some—I would say—wacky views. The Prime Minister was very strong in condemning the views of QAnon. But what the ABC failed to mention in the program was that one of their key witnesses is a serial conspiracy theorist who has twice been detained by the fixated persons unit of the Queensland police and admits he took part in the TV program to politically damage Scott Morrison.

So here is the ABC allowing, quite frankly, a nut job to go on their so-called premier current affairs program and attack the Prime Minister. Of course, the ABC didn't say, 'Oh, and this person has been twice detained by the Queensland police because they're a nut job.' Rather, they put them up on a pedestal. What the ABC fails to understand is that those on the centre-right of politics are sick of you. It is very dangerous for you in the ABC, because why should the taxpayers of this country continue to fund an organisation that continually derides and sells down those of us who have centre-right views? I can tell you that the thought leaders in the centre-right community around Australia are also sick of the ABC. The ABC needs to reform itself, and the challenge is for Ita Buttrose to understand that the centre-right of politics is continually and increasingly questioning the role of the ABC in modern society and questioning whether there is a need for the ABC.

In my maiden speech, I said that, if the ABC doesn't reform itself, it should be privatised, but that there should be a rural and regional broadcasting service. I repeat that today. I think it is time for the government to look at whether the ABC should be halved—whether we should have a rural and regional broadcasting service and then sell off the rest, if the ABC won't reform itself. On behalf of the taxpayers of Australia, who put billions of dollars a year into this organisation: we want value for our money and we're not getting it at the moment.