The ABC will take an initial $120 million budget hit over four years through a combination of a 1% efficiency dividend and the scrapping of the $223 million Australia Network contract. Further cuts are expected to flow from an efficiency study completed in April.
CPSU National President Michael Tull said Mr Turnbull is out of touch with reality to claim that the 1% efficiency dividend announced in the Budget could be easily absorbed.
“Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull says he expects those efficiencies can be achieved without cutting the ABC’s ‘diverse range of programs and services, or affecting their editorial independence’. It’s clear he didn’t account for the massive cut his colleague Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has inflicted on the ABC by scrapping the Australia Network.
“Sadly reality is catching up with Minister Turnbull, albeit on a 48-hour delay,” said Mr Tull. After meeting with staff and ABC management the CPSU confirms that jobs and programs will be cut. “Australia Network staff and budgets underpin much of the ABC’s foreign coverage so it will have a flow on effect to domestic and international news. The bottom line is that there will have to be cuts to programs and output because it’s not possible for the ABC to do everything - including fulfilling its Charter obligations to be an international broadcaster – but with $120m less,”
“A cut of that size has to affect programs and newsgathering because it is people that make programs. Fewer people means fewer programs,” Mr Tull added. Mr Tull added that the CPSU is concerned that the cut will heap yet more pressure on areas of the ABC that are already stretched thin, such as Arts and Drama.
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