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https://theconversation.com/what-would-and-should-happen-to-the-abc-under-the-next-federal-government-248117>
"Who could possibly argue with the idea that the ABC should be efficiently run
and produce excellent programs?
No one, you would think. So why, then, has there been immediate resistance to
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s statement that, if elected next month, a
Coalition government would “reward excellence” and “keep funding in place” if
the ABC is “being run efficiently”?
The fact that Coalition governments – and Dutton himself – have historically
been deeply hostile to the public broadcaster is part of it. Many have picked
up on the implicit threat that if his government did not find “excellence”, its
funding would be cut.
But there’s more than that. For example, who defines “excellence” and
“efficiency”?
Second, the ABC is set up by statute to be run independent of government.
Third, the ABC has been subjected to a slew of efficiency reviews, in 1988,
1997, 2006, 2014 and 2018. Overwhelmingly, they found the ABC does more with
fewer resources than its counterparts in the commercial media.
For example, in 2006, at the behest of the Coalition government led by John
Howard, KPMG found the ABC was a “broadly efficient organisation” providing a
“high volume of outputs and quality relative to the level of funding it
receives”.
Let’s translate the consulting-speak. The ABC’s annual budget of $1.2 billion
costs $43 per person in Australia. The cheapest subscription to Netflix costs
more than twice that amount - $95.88 – and of course the ABC provides much more
than a single streaming service.
Fourth, Coalition governments’ record of antipathy towards the ABC is most
obvious in how they fund it."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
