Labor pledges to reverse ABC’s funding cut

Labor says it will reverse an $83 million cut to the ABC's funding in a bid to safeguard jobs and shore up services.

Bill Shorten is promising to guarantee funding certainty to the national broadcaster after the last round of cuts in the federal budget.

"This year alone, this out of touch government has cut $83.7 million in ABC funding, launched two damaging public broadcasting inquiries and has three bills before parliament to meddle with the ABC Charter," the opposition leader said on Monday.

"At a time when too many Australians feel disengaged from their democracy and distrustful of their representatives, Labor wants to restore trust and faith in our institutions," Mr Shorten said.

"Part of restoring trust is supporting a healthy public interest media sector, and protecting that trusted institution - the ABC."

What do you think? Are you more likely to vote for a party that recognises the importance of the ABC?

14 comments

Of course he would . Who else will provide biased pro labor coverage 

Ben, the short answer is "NO."

Why should everyone else tighten their belt while the ABC threatens to cut country services because they cant manage? A typical leftist reaction, make someone else feel the pain. 

YES YES YES I will vote for anyone who promises to protect our ABC. Shorten’s promise will probably shift my vote from Green to Labor.

Is that what you call a shift??!! 

Related image

I bet it’s more of a shift than you will ever make Adrianas, being the blind one-eyed supporter of LNP that you are.

The way I see it atm. You have this government stay on or you destroy our economy and lifestyle. I am not locked into left or right, but I am locked onto forward and not reverse!!

I just watched Bill Shorten’s performance on Q&A. Must say I was really impressed. 

Yes Robi as was I,  lets face it no one could do worse than this mob thats in now

Shorten most likely fed Q&A the questions 

Never seen a more biased pro labor program 

Yes, I find him impressive too when he actually gets the chance to say more than a few words as a sound bite.  But as much as I love Q & A, I don't think it will be all that helpful because the people who have made up their minds to dislike him probably wouldn't watch it anyway.

I have said it before, I actually find quite a few politicians, both right and left, more impressive on Q & A and am often surprised by that.

I totally agree with his last comment about it being a lot more 'fun' than the rubbish they go on with in Parliament.

 

No!

Shorten lost some ground with that.

Above cartoon is by Johannes Leak, The Australian.

 

Although I like the ABC..I won't vote for Labor or LNP just because of their promises regarding the ABC..there are other more important things to consider..

I believe the ABC..a cleaned up version.. is very important for the nation..I am never disappointed with their programmes because I don't rely on talk shows for political information...I look elsewhere..

I like the ABC because it provides great music and more information about what's happening in the world of art than the commercial stations.. 



 

Yes it is the talk shows on ABC that show most political bias from the guest speakers they present.

We need the ABC and SBS as they are more fair dinkum than ANY of the other channels -- but still always good to do your own searching too

If they really are "fair dinkum" then why do they refer to each other as "comrades?"

Isnt that marxist terminology?

 

If the Liberals get their way they will sell off ABC, already in the pipe line. I love the ABC and watch many of the shows. I hate commercial TV, ads, repeat, ads, repeat.

musicveg, don't believe all the rumours.

I will be very surprised if the ABC is ever sold off. Very surprised indeed.

https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/national/2018/06/16/liberal-party-votes-privatise-abc/

The Liberal party has voted, so it is a start, we need to make sure they don't go ahead. In the meantime they are cutting back funding so they can't function properly, then they will say we have to sell.

Yep that's true but it has  been rejected by cabinet ministers who  warn it would be “total madness” to act on the call.

This is one occasion when I believe Scomo. Guess we'll  just have to wait and see.


They should sell of SBS which is nothing more than an archaic indulgence that drains valuable tax dollars while serving little purpose.

At the very least they should merge it with ABC ... no future in paying double executive salaries.

I love SBS too, they have amazing documentries that no other channel has, would be a shame for it to be commercialized, but could be an idea to merge, thought they are very different.

People say the ABC and SBS don't rate as well as the commercial channels and use that as an excuse for pushing for them to be closed down.  That might well be true, no idea really, but there might be a reason for that.

While I like the ABC, I didn't feel the same way about SBS until recently. I got hooked on 'The Handmaid's Tale', and in the process discovered a few other programmes that I quite like.

I used to skip over it, thinking it was all foreign films with subtitles and the like. I had no idea what I was missing.

I think that could be the problem with both the ABC and SBS for a lot of people.  A pre-conceived idea of what they are about turning people off. 

Murdoch and his sycophants have done a pretty thorough job of protecting their own interests.

BREAKING: The Turnbull Government has just voted against a motion in Parliament to keep the ABC in public hands.

This is on top of the Liberal Federal Council’s vote on the weekend to support the privatisation of the ABC, as well as their refusal to reverse their $83.7 million cut in this year’s budget.

So it is still possible that in the future they will privatize ABC, we need to stop this!

Even if they say they won’t sell the ABC we know the LNP is not to be trusted. Remember all of the broken election promises in the past, one of which was “no cuts to the ABC or SBS”? Vote this rotten mob back in again and we can say goodbye to our ABC.

There will be no carbon tax under Juliars government 

no irresponsible spending taking us from a creditor to a debtor nation under K Dudd

Robi, they werent actually cuts. They were a clawback on the bribes offered by Julia Gillard to attack Tony Abbott.

14 comments



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