background briefing 3 .................1

Quarterly Newsletter: Spring 2000 Vol.2 No.3

Something in the air

Whatever is in the air at the ABC is setting off alarm-bells among its audiences and supporters.

What is happening to Your ABC, Our ABC? Where is the new managing director Jonathan Shier taking the ABC in the radical overhaul which is in progress?

Changes are to be expected with a new MD but there is disquiet about the speed and nature of the current changes: the use of psychometric testing for proven ABC top talent; the haste with which sackings of top executives were made and the propriety of money being made available from the chairman of the board for headhunting even before Mr Shier took office. Of great concern is the resignation, along with many more, of the highly respected Sue Masters who was responsible for the commissioning of SeaChange, Wildside, Grass Roots and many other successes going back over 20 years.

We have concerns that Mr Shier, coming from a background in marketing and commercial television, will take the ABC further down the path of commercialism to raise the funds denied it by an unfriendly government. He has used the terms'undervalued' and 'undersold' to describe the ABC - ominously commercial terms.

Ignoring the high level of public support, he uses his claims that the ABC is performing badly as justification for a complete 'shakeup', with everything 'up for grabs'. No wonder morale is low at the ABC and change fatigue is in the air.

Mr Shier has no prior experience in public broadcasting. He has disregarded the ABC's sizable audience share and its responsibility to provide diverse programming, denigrating the ABC on the basis of its 'low ratings'. He has indicated that ratings would be the mainstay of the new ABC. There are worrying signs of the downgrading of current affairs.

Mr Shier has been out of Australia for more than 20 years and has embarked with undue haste on massive changes to the ABC.

without consulting its real shareholders, the Australian people. FABC has asked to be fully informed on the restructure taking place at the ABC. We want to know why these changes should occur and what they will achieve. In particular we want to know what impact it is anticipated they will have on specific networks, program areas and programs.

Government neglect of the ABC remains the fundamental issue.

The encompassing problem for the ABC is inadequate government funding. Sue Masters was promised a budget for producing Australian drama at Channel Ten that the ABC can only dream about. There is no funding for the ABC's new digital channel. The needs list is huge.

The ABC must be given the funds from government to enable it to do what it is charged to do as a public broadcaster.

Below: Mon Taylor (Anne Phelan) in Something in the Air