Margaret Simons, writing for Crikey.com on 22 November 2006, has seen a leaked copy of a briefing for the ABC Board on the review of ABC funding commissioned by the Federal Government and carried out by accounting firm KPMG.

She writes that the review found that the ABC needed an extra $125.8 million in core funding over the next three years just to maintain present operations.  The Federal Governments response in the last budget was maintenance of core funding in real terms, plus $88.2 million over three years in new funding .  This amounts to a shortfall of $37 million before any planning of new services, or for the extra programs required as a result of the lifting of restrictions on the ABC’s digital TV channel, ABC2.

According to the Crikey.com report “after comparing the ABC to Australian commercial broadcasters and public broadcasters overseas, KPMG concluded ‘The ABC provides a high volume of outputs and quality relative to the level of funding it receives... the ABC appears to be a broadly efficient organisation’."

Margaret Simons concluded:
“Now we know that behind the supposed generosity (in the last federal budget)  lies a Government that budgeted for starvation and decline.”