ABC Chair defends Coalition 16th July 2001

The Editor
The Australian
16 July 2001

Mr Donald Mc Donald's defence of the Coalition's level of funding for the ABC in your pages (letters 16 July) and in his speech to CEDA (11 July) is inconsistent with his attack on Labor's funding record.

The Friends of the ABC heartily agree with the ABC Chairman when he attacks the Labor party for the savage cuts it made to the ABC budget between 1985-86 and 1995-96. Mr McDonald was quite correct when he said, in a speech to CEDA on 11 July "...in the ten year period from 1985-86 to 1995-96 our operational funding was reduced by 30%".

We strongly disagree with Mr McDonald where he appears to support Senator Alston's claim that the $66 million removed from the ABC budget by the Coalition after the 1996 budget has been restored. When he told CEDA, in the same speech "in 2001 our operational indexed appropriation will once again equal the funding we received in 1996" he was technically correct, but he omitted some significant facts.

The Coalition took $66 million (in 1997 dollars) from the ABC's ongoing budget. While there have been some increases to the ABC budget since then, most have been of a one off or short term nature. It is just not true that the ABC's ongoing budget now equals its 1996 appropriation in real terms.

The ABC has been funded for digitisation, just as it was for colour TV conversion in the 1970s. That is a one off appropriation, and does not form part of the ABC's funding base.

The ABC has received $17.8 million a year, for four years, for regional initiatives. While welcome, it is only for four years and does not form part of the ABC's ongoing funding base. There has been no commitment by the government to extend this funding beyond four years.

When Mr.McDonald, in a letter to the Australian published today, claims that the ABC has received "a minimum of $75 million for an Asia Pacific Television Service" he omits to inform readers that this was a contract for five years, and that the annual amount of the contract is around $15 million. Moreover, the government has said that it expects this service to also be supported by advertising or sponsorship. There has been no commitment to extend this beyond five years.

While we welcome ABC involvement in an Asia television service, we strongly oppose any commercial involvement, just as we did when the Labor Party announced a similar operation in the 1990s.

Such one off and short term increases have not restored the ABC's ongoing funding base to its 1995-96 levels.

We call on all political parties to restore the ABC's ongoing budget at least to its 1996 level, indexed for inflation, plus additional funding to permit the ABC to participate fully in the digital environment

Darce Cassidy
National Spokesperson
Friends of the ABC