Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today in the Senate, together with my Labor colleague, Senator Lisa Singh, I moved a motion that called on the Senate to oppose the cuts to the ABC and SBS and called on the government to protect the services the ABC and SBS provide to regional Australia. I was pleased to see the Senate support our motion, despite opposition from the government Senators.

The motion starts off noting Mr Tony Abbott's promise at the 2013 election not to cut funding to the ABC or SBS. If you would like to see that promise, you can google it on YouTube and watch it endlessly as some of us have been doing.

We know of course that promise to the people of Australia was a lie and, since Mr Turnbull's confirmation last week of the Prime Ministerial about-face, we have been watching in awe as Mr Abbott and his loyal minions desperately try to spin the truth. They are not very good at it; the Prime Minister is certainly not very good at it.

His attempt to recover from his blatant lie yesterday was laughable. Although he clearly stated on election eve that there would be no cuts to the ABC and SBS, he stood in the other place and denied that he said that. In fact, his exact words were:

I never said there would be special treatment for the ABC.

…   …   …

Everybody knew there would be an efficiency dividend.

Everybody knew there would be an efficiency dividend? Everybody in cabinet, perhaps—but my constituents and the voting public knew of no such thing. There was no forewarning whatsoever to these cuts. Indeed if there had been, there would not be such outrage and backlash against the government as we are seeing in the media today. We saw rallies today, including the one in Canberra.

We have, of course, had the Pyne on Line petition, which continues to provoke hilarity, ridicule and disbelief amongst South Australians in particular. Here in the Senate—both yesterday and today—we had the Leader of the Government in Senate being exceedingly disingenuous when he said no-one at the ABC had lost their job. Everyone knows that 400 jobs—10 per cent of the national broadcaster's workforce—will be lost, and ABC employees are waiting to hear if they will be one of those who will lose their job before Christmas.

We have had Liberal South Australian senators in this place performing verbal contortions as they try to defend the budget cuts that will cause job losses in South Australia and loss of regional services in my state. What they are really doing of course is indulging in more ABC bashing, an activity they specialise in and have done for years, as they try to paint the ABC as some kind of left-wing plot and at the same time they suck up to conservative cheerleader press for whom nothing is too much trouble—even a taxpayer funded royal commission into unions, which is turning out to be a waste of taxpayers' money and a witch-hunt intended only to provide fodder for News Limited papers as we always knew it would be.

In typical fashion, coalition senators in this place blame the ABC for the cuts to services that their government's budget cuts have forced the ABC to make. At least Mr Rowan Ramsey, the Liberal Member for Grey—a regional seat in South Australia—understands the impact of his government's action and has spoken out about the loss of the radio post in Port Augusta. That closure is a devastating blow to regional South Australia. Mr Ramsey admitted the words of the Prime Minister were 'unfortunate and that it 'puts us in a difficult position'. Difficult position alright—that is for sure.

At least Mr Craig Laundy, a Liberal member in the other place, apparently had the guts to call it as it is in the Liberal Party room today and asked the Prime Minister to stop the verbal acrobatics. National Senator Fiona Nash, representing the Minister for Sport in this place and purportedly representing rural and regional Australians—I have yet to see any evidence of successful representation—made a complete hash of her answer today to an excellent question from my Labor colleague Senator Nova Peris about the impact of cuts on broadcasting of women's sport. On this day, White Ribbon Day, a day dedicated to recognising that we all need to do more to support women, Minister Nash was unable to defend the cuts to the ABC that will mean cuts to broadcasting of women's sport. Senator Peris later explained to the Senate just how important broadcasting of women's sport is to young women who need opportunity, motivation and a chance to excel. I urge you to read Senator Peris' speech on that matter.

Minister Malcolm Turnbull does not bother with spin any more. He tried for a while but he knows the Prime Minister lied and today Mr Turnbull gave up the ridiculous attempts at verbal subterfuge and just came out and admitted the cuts are cuts—no doubt about it. And, of course we had the increasingly hapless Minister for Defence, Senator Johnston, who departed from the Liberal loyalist script a few times at question time yesterday when he came right out and said the cuts to the ABC budget were just that—cuts, no nonsense about efficiency dividends, no ifs or buts or verbal manoeuvres from him. You have to wonder whether Senator Johnston's departure from the Liberal script and path of spin is because he is about to depart his ministry.

The Prime Minister has no-one but himself to blame for the difficult position he finds himself in, but the difficult position I am more concerned about is the plight of ABC workers in South Australia and elsewhere in Australia. At the hands of the Prime Minister, ABC staff left the Collinswood studios in Adelaide yesterday knowing that some 37 of them faced redundancy before Christmas. After 55 years, Adelaide's three ABC studios will be completely closed as a result of this government's antipathy to the ABC—the national broadcaster that is trusted and wanted by the majority of Australians, Australians who want more than News Limited press to deliver their news and information.

On top of the closure of the television studios in Adelaide and the Port Augusta radio post, South Australia will also lose our state-based 7.30 edition, as well as the recorded broadcasts of the popular ABC Classic FM radio. South Australians are, rightly, outraged by these cuts to jobs and services. Unfortunately South Australians are getting used to being the target of the Liberal governments' attacks on jobs in my state—the job losses at Holden, the closure of Medicare Locals, the disbandment of 150 jobs at South Australian based Health Workforce Australia and even more sad news today with the CSIRO Staff Association report stating another 41 jobs will be lost at the CSIRO in Adelaide by next June. This government is absolutely decimating South Australia.

And then of course, we have the failure of this government to honour its commitment to build the 12 future submarines in Adelaide. Today we heard the aforementioned hapless Minister for Defence stick the boot into South Australian jobs when he said in reference to the Australian Submarine Corps, 'I wouldn't trust them to build a canoe.' It was a disgraceful comment and another clear indication that this government is out to get South Australia and South Australian workers. The government will not stand up for South Australian workers and South Australian jobs but unions and the Labor Party will. I would like to acknowledge the hard work of both the CPSU and the MEAA in fighting against the cuts at the ABC. The two unions have joined forces to attack the government for its assault on the public broadcaster. Unfortunately, there will be more hard work to come in the near future for both unions as the ABC meets with staff to negotiate the forthcoming 400 redundancies. I would like to thank the union reps and delegates for representing their members for standing up for ABC services and ABC jobs.

No amount of spin and verbal acrobatics can disguise the facts that this government and this Prime Minister lied to the Australian people before the election about funding for the ABC and the SBS. There are cuts to the budgets which will have devastating effects around Australia and in particular in my home state of South Australia and South Australians will not forget.