Audit report: Axe Australia Network but no changes to ABC, SBS funding
Audit Commission recommends Australia Network be axed but concludes there is no "right level" of funding for ABC, SBS.
- Published by David Knox
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The government’s Commission of Audit has recommended the abolition of the Australia Network but makes no recommendation for ABC and SBS funding.
The network, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and managed by the ABC under its $223m 10 year contract, has operated since 1993 under various names.
The report describes Australia Network as “an expensive option for meeting its diplomatic objectives given its limited outreach and small audience.”
It recommends funding be directed instead to other areas, or returned to the budget.
“Media convergence, especially the availability and access of text, audio and video media via the internet, is increasingly eliminating the traditional arguments for public broadcasting,” the report says.
“It could be argued that the need for government intervention or support has now been superseded by technology and commercial imperatives.”
However the report makes no detailed recommendations for the ABC’s annual $1.1bn or SBS funding of $270m, stating there is no ‘right’ level of funding or services and their “capacity to deliver services including to remote and regional Australia” should not be compromised.
It does not recommend a merger of the two.
But Guardian Australia reports it suggests efficiencies could be made, and that both broadcasters should be independently benchmarked against each other and against commercial rivals.
It also recommends the Australian Film, Television and Radio School be transferred to a university or vocational education institution with an option for the Arts Council to fund scholarships.
The Abbott government has commissioned a separate “efficiency study” into ABC and SBS operations.
Additional source: Fairfax
9 Responses
@Bazza – You are dead right. No refrigerator or washing machine or indoor plumbing, let alone a PC, but always a 4:3 TV (often donated), with a TVRO out the back, or a community TV like in PNG.
@Pertinax – “The Australian (sic) Network on the other hand has no purpose.”
It teaches English, it educates, it entertains, and it informs about and promotes Australia and Australian products & services. It’s a measly $223M over a 10-years contract.
“expensive … given its limited outreach to a small audience”. Is “46 countries in the Asia-Pacific region” a “small audience”?
Anyone talking about the pay rise politicians are getting in July? Ian Watt, PM & Cabinet will get $844,800, up 6% (plus 15% super, and a car, etc., etc.)Treasury Secretary Martin Parkinson, who was due to be sacked in July, will instead enjoy a pay rise of $40,000 taking his salary to $824,000 (+++).
Credit where it is due David to Mark Scott who is battling well in the fight to maintain ABC funding and whose appointment during the Howard reign by a Board of conservatives has made him the right man for the job. This is quite different from views I might have on the highly variable quality of ABC television content of late and whether some of the local commissioning has been up to scratch. You can be supportive and critical at the same time.
Many people in the coverage area can barely afford computers, let alone Internet access. For some areas this is the only FTA TV available. I’m afraid the line of reasoning the audit has followed is quite flawed at its foundations.
Mark Scott was very prescient giving Amanda Vanstone a regular gig on Radio National. He found a well connected friend who ended up being part of the audit group. Perhaps he could extend her role… Mrs Vanstone’s Murder Mysteries perhaps. Christopher Pyne could be her side kick. Guest appearance from Alexander Downer in drag.
Victor I don’t think I’ve seen much praise from you for ABC for a long time, and little on other networks?
The Commission of Audit didn’t say that there will be no cuts to the ABC or SBS. It said that they should be evaluated the same as any Government corporation, bench-marked for efficiency (two reports are due to report on that) and funded as the Government thinks appropriate.
The Australian Network on the other hand has no purpose.
That is what the small government promoting Business Council of Australia thinks anyway. They are looking $60-70b p.a. of savings by 2024, in ways that their members, Abbott and Hockey like.
Obviously whomever wrote the internet will cover everything seems to be out of touch with reality. As someone mentioned below there’s the countries with crap internet even if people can get it. Also a whole lot of people can’t afford it. Whereas television is practical for them. Plus even in the more sophisticated countries there is such a thing as censorship and internet sites being blocked. So that TV transmission can be a practical option to reach people that the internet can’t. And will reach more than the internet will.
Okay Mr Abbott, that is one promise kept to Murdoch.
What others are there?
“limited outreach and small audience” & “the availability and access of text, audio and video media via the internet, is increasingly eliminating the traditional arguments for public broadcasting”.
These buffoons really have no idea. The “small audience” reaches from Cook Islands to central Europe where it is the sole TV service rebroadcast on local FTA for most of the day & night, across all of Asia and into Africa.
“media via the internet” is great if you have an internet service at all. Try PNG, Samoa, Fiji, where the only internet is expensive, limited wireless. Certainly not to watch TV.