ABC Friends Response to Senator Abetz

Recently on 15 June 2021 The Examiner published a highly critical opinion piece by Liberal Senator Eric Abetz about the ABC. 

Accusations included ‘bias’, ‘transparency’ and are perhaps summed up by this claim:

“…our ABC, for which we pay well over $1000 million each and every year from our taxes, lets down itself and the Australian people. The bias is palpable. The hypocrisy unbearable.”

ABC Friends Tasmania were not prepared for his words to go unchallenged.

Sseveral board members submitted a letter to The Examiner over a week ago asking for it to be printed as a right-of-reply to Senator Abetz. It has not been published.

Tasmanian Times is proud to publish the reply The Examiner is afraid of making public.

ABC Friends response – emailed to the Examiner editor 22 June 2021

Dear Editor

It’s encouraging to know Senator Abetz recognises the importance of our public broadcaster, and acknowledges the vital service the ABC provides, which makes it even more disappointing he has apparently failed to appreciate that the provision of such a service comes at a cost. To continue delivering the exceptional service it provides; one that informs, educates, and entertains Australians across radio, television and digital platforms, requires funding commensurate with this exceptional level of service.

Successive Coalition governments however have systematically reduced funding to our public broadcaster to the tune of $713 million, resulting in the loss of approximately one third of its workforce. Yet despite these cuts the ABC is still expected to deliver the same range and depth of programming according to, and required by, its Charter.

Perhaps Senator Abetz has forgotten Australia had every reason to be thankful for ABC journalists during the horrors of last year’s bushfires. Their thorough reporting, calmly and professionally delivered, ensured the country was well-informed throughout the intensity of those weeks. The same professionalism was on display throughout our island’s devastating 2019 bushfires, and the floods in 2016.

So again, it’s disappointing that Senator Abetz has chosen to support such brutal funding cuts, when by rights he should be arguing for an increase to ensure the crucial communication services provided by ABC’s reporters in regional and rural communities can continue.

Since the whole of Tasmania is widely considered to fall into the regional and rural category, any loss of communication services during natural disasters could be devastating. Senator Abetz will also recall the news cycle had barely paused for breath last year before the coronavirus crisis hit.

The ABC was – and remains – the nation’s most trusted source about this pandemic. Whether it’s local, national or global news, the public broadcaster’s journalists and presenters are always at the forefront, keeping the entire country up-to-date and well informed on radio, television and online on all aspects of the pandemic that continues to spread throughout the world. The ABC’s health reporter, Dr Norman Swan’s Coronacast podcast remains the go-to information source for all things corona for the entire nation. Never have we had reason to be more grateful for our public broadcaster’s comprehensive reportage.

It’s also disappointing that while Senator Abetz is quick to criticise the ABC for an apparent lack of transparency and accountability in its reporting of issues such as bonuses paid to ABC staff, and to the individual who supplied footage of January’s Capitol Hill riots in the US, he fails to use the same benchmarks when it’s a matter of reporting the federal government’s questionable transparency and accountability.

Surely taxpayers have a right to know the full story behind issues such as Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie’s $100 million ‘sports rorts’? Or how it was that Energy Minister Angus Taylor could accuse Sydney’s Lord Mayor of hypocrisy, based on an: ‘allegedly falsified document’ in his office, and yet suffer no consequences? Or how taxpayers paid a Liberal Party donor ten times the value of their land in NWS’s Leppington Triangle?

To date there have been no satisfactory answers to any – and many more – such questions, yet funding for the Australian National Audit Office was cut in the last Budget, and Australians continue to wait for the Commonwealth ICAC the federal government promised to establish in 2018.

Like others in the Coalition Senator Abetz accuses the ABC of left-wing bias, yet despite multiple inquiries no evidence of bias has ever been found.

The ABC plays a critical role in our democracy, reflecting the myriad views that exist in Australia.

As a taxpayer-funded national broadcaster, the ABC is required to put public interest first, as it should. But this same level of balance may not necessarily be a priority for commercial networks, who may be unduly influenced by views held by their proprietors and advertisers.

Credibility is certainly important, but this also holds true for the federal government. Australians rely on our ABC to shine a light into political corners that might otherwise remain hidden. Our public broadcaster is an essential pillar of our democracy.

ABC Friends represents the community’s interest in its independent national public broadcaster – every Australian is a shareholder. It comprises independent organisations which exist in each state and territory.