2018-05-10
Malcolm Turnbull’s 2018 Budget is the latest episode in this Government’s relentless assault on the ABC.
"The ABC’s funding has been cut by a quarter of a billion dollars since the Coalition won the 2013 election promising “no cuts to the ABC”," Greens media spokesperson Senator Sarah Hanson-Young said.
"The ABC gets a funding cut while News Corp gets a tax cut.
"Pauline Hanson has demanded a cut, and Malcolm Turnbull has delivered. Pauline Hanson and One Nation are writing the Turnbull Government’s media policy.
"This Government is not simply content on defunding the ABC. It’s attempting to woo the Senate crossbench with attacks on the ABC’s operations.
"It’s trying to add superfluous and redundant obligations for the national broadcaster to be “fair and balanced”, despite it already being obligated to do so.
"It’s trying to demand the ABC and SBS publish the names and salaries of senior staff, in an attempt to shame the public broadcasters for the crime of paying its employees.
"It’s attempting to curb the national broadcaster’s ability to compete in a crowded media market, by initiating inquiries into how the ABC’s freely available high quality news is harming the commercial prospects of paywalled content.
"And now they’re pushing to lock up ABC’s iview and SBS On Demand behind a paywall.
"These cuts hurt the ABC and they hurt the country. They mean fewer jobs for journalists to hold the Government to account. That might suit the Government, but it hurts the nation.
"There’s 107 people in this government who want an end to the ABC, but there’s tens of millions more who just want an end to this government."