Extract from The Guardian
Forcing further funding cuts upon the ABC would be “courageous
politics” according to an Australia Institute report which found most
taxpayers support boosting the national broadcaster’s budget for
regional news.
The ABC was failing to fulfil its charter obligation to provide programs that contributed to a sense of national identity because its coverage of regional Australia was dropping, the report, titled Heartland: why the bush needs the ABC, found.
The institute polled 1413 people and found 58% of those living in capital cities and regional centres and 64% of those in remote areas supported additional funding for the ABC’s regional news services.
In November, the federal government announced $252m in funding cuts to the ABC, prompting the broadcaster’s managing director, Mark Scott, to close five regional offices: Port Augusta in South Australia, Nowra in New South Wales, Gladstone in Queensland, Morwell in Victoria and Wagin in Western Australia.
But the Australia Institute’s executive director, Ben Oquist, said targeted funding of ABC regional services was politically popular; the poll found most Australians supported additional funding for regional news services (59%) and programs about regional Australia (55%).
“The public wants more regional news, and as taxpayers they’re willing to pay for it,” Oquist said, launching the report at parliament house with the independent MP for the rural seat of Indi, Cathy McGowan, and the former independent MP for New England, Tony Windsor.
“Recently there has been a loss of regional commercial media in many areas. Regional media is viewed as an essential democratic institution by regional Australians, with 95% accessing some type of local content each week.”
Expanding ABC funding for regional news services is almost universal among Labor and Greens voters. Support among Coalition voters varied across electorates.
Although 57% of Liberal voters in the South Australian electorate of Sturt, held by the education minister, Christopher Pyne, supported expanding the ABC in regional areas, only 26% of Liberal voters in the NSW electorate of Wentworth, held by the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, supported it.
“Ironically, the minister for the ABC appears to be the member with the most opposition amongst Liberal voters to extra funds for regional services,” the report found.
“However, overall, even in this inner-city electorate, total support for extra resources for the bush remains strong.”
A spokesman for the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, told Guardian Australia that the funding cuts to the ABC and SBS were the result of an efficiency study of the broadcasters carried out in 2014.
Those cuts could be achieved by modernising business models and without impacting on the ABC’s range of programmes and services, he said.
“Whilst the Government provides an overall level of funding to the ABC, decisions regarding the level of resources the ABC allocates to regional services are a matter for the ABC Board and executive,” he said.
Windsor said economic theory that costs could be saved by centralising services was wrongful thinking when it came to regional media.
The ABC was failing to fulfil its charter obligation to provide programs that contributed to a sense of national identity because its coverage of regional Australia was dropping, the report, titled Heartland: why the bush needs the ABC, found.
The institute polled 1413 people and found 58% of those living in capital cities and regional centres and 64% of those in remote areas supported additional funding for the ABC’s regional news services.
In November, the federal government announced $252m in funding cuts to the ABC, prompting the broadcaster’s managing director, Mark Scott, to close five regional offices: Port Augusta in South Australia, Nowra in New South Wales, Gladstone in Queensland, Morwell in Victoria and Wagin in Western Australia.
But the Australia Institute’s executive director, Ben Oquist, said targeted funding of ABC regional services was politically popular; the poll found most Australians supported additional funding for regional news services (59%) and programs about regional Australia (55%).
“The public wants more regional news, and as taxpayers they’re willing to pay for it,” Oquist said, launching the report at parliament house with the independent MP for the rural seat of Indi, Cathy McGowan, and the former independent MP for New England, Tony Windsor.
“Recently there has been a loss of regional commercial media in many areas. Regional media is viewed as an essential democratic institution by regional Australians, with 95% accessing some type of local content each week.”
Expanding ABC funding for regional news services is almost universal among Labor and Greens voters. Support among Coalition voters varied across electorates.
Although 57% of Liberal voters in the South Australian electorate of Sturt, held by the education minister, Christopher Pyne, supported expanding the ABC in regional areas, only 26% of Liberal voters in the NSW electorate of Wentworth, held by the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, supported it.
“Ironically, the minister for the ABC appears to be the member with the most opposition amongst Liberal voters to extra funds for regional services,” the report found.
“However, overall, even in this inner-city electorate, total support for extra resources for the bush remains strong.”
A spokesman for the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, told Guardian Australia that the funding cuts to the ABC and SBS were the result of an efficiency study of the broadcasters carried out in 2014.
Those cuts could be achieved by modernising business models and without impacting on the ABC’s range of programmes and services, he said.
“Whilst the Government provides an overall level of funding to the ABC, decisions regarding the level of resources the ABC allocates to regional services are a matter for the ABC Board and executive,” he said.
Windsor said economic theory that costs could be saved by centralising services was wrongful thinking when it came to regional media.
“The worst thing that can happen is that all the media comes out of Sydney,” he said. “Today is a call for more funding for the ABC because the people are asking for it.”
The report comes as a former deputy prime minister, Tim Fischer, renewed pressure on the Coalition to reform regional media laws by allowing mergers between regional and metropolitan networks.
The former Nationals leader was appointed this week to front the Save Our Voices campaign, which argues mergers would allow regional networks to remain competitive in the face of competition from online news organisations, which have no restrictions on their licence areas.
“I need to study the Australian Institute report in detail, but it’s clearly a manifestation of further support for good strong media voices in regional Australia, whether that voice comes from the ABC or other organisations,” Fischer said on Wednesday.
“I’ve become deeply concerned by the antiquated restrictions on regional media which restrict most notably Prime, WIN and Southern Cross from remaining viable.”
Fairfax newspapers in the Newcastle and Hunter region of NSW announced last week they would shed 69 jobs, including 46 journalists, in the latest round of cuts to the publisher’s regional newspapers.
Fairfax’s regional division, Australian Community Media, is making big cuts across all its regional mastheads resulting in the loss of hundreds of jobs in regional news.
No comments:
Post a Comment