The Tasmanian Greens today called on the Tasmanian Liberal Party to condemn moves within the party to privatise the ABC and SBS, and to rule out supporting any similar moves at the state level.
Greens Arts & Culture Spokesperson, Cassy O’Connor MP, said all Australians who value media diversity should be alarmed at a motion set to be voted on at the Liberal Party’s Victorian state conference this weekend describing public ownership of the national broadcaster as “no longer valid”.
“Here we go with yet another right-wing authoritarian assault on media diversity by the Liberal Party,” Ms O’Connor said.
“It’s clear that they are just itching to get back into government, so they can take up John Howard’s hate-fuelled ideological crusade against public broadcasting.”’
“The concentration of private media ownership in Australia is easily amongst the worst internationally, and the Liberal Party is threatening to make it even worse.”
“The Tasmanian Liberals must unreservedly reject any attempts to de-fund or privatise Australia’s two public broadcasters.”
“If they fail to stand up for the ABC, then they will be picking a fight with the Tasmanian public, who have shown time after time that they support and value the work of the ABC.”
“The Greens played a role in securing a funding allocation of $129 million for the ABC and $30 million for SBS in the recent federal Budget.”
“We are calling on the leaders of both the Tasmanian Labor and Liberal parties to write to their federal counterparts calling on them to publicly commit to keeping our national broadcasters properly funded and kept in public hands.”
Cassy O’Connor MP Greens Arts & Culture Spokesperson Thursday, 23 May 2013
