FEAR AND LOATHING
AND THE ABC

The Politics Behind Cuts
to the National Broadcaster

Speech by the Leader of the State Opposition, (Vic.) Mr John Brumby, to the "Small Screen Big Screen" IQIS seminar, September 26 1996.

September 1996

These are strange times for the media and the arts in Australia.

Strange times for creative minds working in industries pushing the boundaries of communication technologies.

And strange times for the people who carry out a very special task - the storytellers of the tribe.

Strange, because an industry that we all like to be proud of when it delivers us a new star, a smash hit export movie or a reason to circle something in the Green Guide, is having the foundations ripped out of its most important institution.

I'm talking about the ABC of course - and you all know the figures by now.

Ongoing Federal government cuts of 2 percent per year which round out at $11 million in 96/97 and on top of that there is the savage $55 million cut in 97/98.

They promised us they wouldn't do it, their sales routine was the "comfortable and relaxed" coalition. But they've blown the dust off Fightback and gone in with the knife.

We should be celebrating this year - it's the ABC's 65th birthday. But this is no party - this is compulsory retirement.

ABC Diversity

We all know that the ABC has been the training ground for thousands of people in film, TV, radio and multimedia.

We know the long list of programs and entertainers we've been lucky enough to enjoy. Gunston, Andrew Denton, The Coodabeen Champions, Mother and Son, The D-Generation, Frontline, Brides of Christ, Phoenix, Naked, Blue Murder.

We know the long list of names in commercial current affairs who got their start at the ABC - Jana Wendt, Richard Carleton, Ray Martin, Mike Willesee, Jennifer Byrne... just about the whole 60 Minutes team.

There is also a long list of names in the film industry who cut their teeth at the ABC and there are international award winners like - Jan Chapman, the producer of The Piano, and Dean Semler, the Oscar winning cinematographer of Dances with Wolves.

It was the ABC which lifted the profile of the Paralympics this year.

It's ABC Online which is expanding vital information services to rural Australia on the Internet and just this week won the inaugural Australian Financial Review - Telstra award for best media site on the Internet.

It's ABC television, first with Countdown and now Recovery, that has been the launching pad for new Australian Bands. Countdown gave us INXS, AC/DC and Men At Work - and now Recovery is giving a forum to hot new bands like Silverchair, Def FX and You Am I.

And at the same time Triple J continues to promote young Australian bands, where commercial radio fears to tread.

It's ABC's Classic FM that broadcasts more than 700 live concerts into living rooms around Australia.

It's ABC documentaries which set industry standards of excellence. Bob Connolly, producer/director of First Contact, Black Harvest, and Rats in the Ranks did his apprenticeship with the ABC.

The orchestras, ABC shops, Radio National - when you put the list together you begin to realise what an extraordinary institution this is.

And all this diversity is accessible to all Australians - from Mallacoota to Broome and Port Fairy to Thursday Island. There's nothing like it anywhere in the world.

It is, quite simply, the most diverse public media and cultural institution in the world.

So why the cuts? And we're not talking about efficiencies - these are amputations.

Political Attacks

I think there are some clues in the way two coalition leaders have spoken about the ABC this year.

Here's John Howard talking to Fran Kelly on AM in July. He said the ABC was "politically correct to a fault."

And here's the Victorian Premier reacting with characteristic restraint to a Four Corners program which had the nerve to investigate the Crown Casino licence:

"(the ABC is) like a great leech on society. They use your and my money to suck blood from society, to attack those who create wealth and employ people. The real test for the people at the ABC is would anyone ever employ them outside the ABC or would anyone ever see them in an environment where they had to invest their own money or make a dollar? If I had my way I would close it down."

The idea of being "comfortable and relaxed" hasn't reached the Victorian Premier just yet.

Let's not worry about the leeches for a moment. Let's have a look at the claims he makes.

Four Corners has always been very interested in how certain people create wealth - and thank God for that. Remember - it was Chris Masters' expose of crime and corruption in Queensland on Four Corners that led to the Fitzgerald Inquiry and the eventual demise of the National Party Government.

And would anyone ever employ these journalists outside the ABC? Well, yes. Often.

The Premier is light on the facts but very heavy on fear and loathing. Now his Federal Liberal colleagues have taken up the baton and are charging into the ABC in an attempt to silence debate and critical analysis.

And so we have John Howard, trotting out this great cliche about the evils of political correctness in the name of free speech.

Let's nail this nonsense once and for all. Political correctness is an invention - it was made up by people who want to stop decency and progress in their tracks.

Political correctness is the Big Foot of political debate. You've always got to be wary of the kinds of people who say they've seen it.

There's another great conservative thinker who waves that cliche around a bit - and she won't even talk to the ABC - even though the ABC would give her views a national airing.

I wonder what Pauline Hanson is afraid of. Locked in a studio with Kerry O'Brian or Maxine McKew - she might be forced to come up with some evidence for these crazy views of hers.

It's a pity in a way. Half an hour of Pauline on Lateline - I'd like to see that. And you know the commercial channels aren't going to take her on - though I wouldn't mind seeing Earnie Dingo give her a guided tour of The Great Outdoors.

No, the reasons behind these cuts aren't economic - they're political.

At the same time as the cuts were announced, the government said there would be a review of the ABC to "redefine and reposition" the national broadcaster.

Redefine it as what? An organisation starved of funds and less likely to take programming risks?

Reposition it where? In the Margins? Out of the mainstream? Somewhere closer to whatever it is that makes coalition leaders feel comfortable and relaxed?

Here's David Bowman, ex editor-in-chief of the Sydney Morning Herald.
He Said:

"... the arguments over the present and future of the ABC are actually arguments over the kind of society that people want ours to be. The ABC remains a bastion - or only an outpost now - against a social outlook chained to the insatiable demands and bottom-line values of business and commerce."

And that argument, about the kind of society we want to be, is an argument the conservatives simply don't want to have.

They mistrust debate, they mistrust new ideas - and who better to shoot than the messenger?

They'd like to leave it all to the market - and we know what that would mean for local content. More American sit-coms that you can't tell apart from the ads.

Local Content

Managing Director, Brian Johns has already said that the level of Australian content on ABC television has been falling over the last three years as a direct result of financial constraints.

What will massive cuts mean for you and your industry? For co-productions? For the multi-channel environment of the future?

The arts and media industries have always got a kind of bounce about them. That's down to the inbuilt optimism of the people who work in these fields.

But you know what a fiercely competitive world it is. You know how fragile your own livlihoods are. And you know what a never-ending battle it is to keep Australian voices, Australian stories, visible in a global market.

With the expected flood of foreign programs on Pay TV it is more important than ever that we have a comprehensive, viable public broadcaster with links to your creative community - a public broadcaster with the ability to make quality Australian programs and to commission independent producers to make quality Australian programs.

Regional Australia

The ABC's commitment to local content has taken the ABC out of the cities and into the bush to tell the stories of the men and women who live in regional Australia.

But it is unlikely the ABC will be able to maintain its commitment to regional Australia under the pressure of the cutbacks.

The National Party has been running around spinning the line that regional programming will be spared the cuts. They forget that people in the bush don't just tune in to the ABC for the local news - they tune in to the ABC to be part of the national cultural debate.

You can't take a slice out of the ABC and say its not going to affect country people.

You take a slice out of the ABC and you affect all Australians, everywhere.

Melbourne

We're fond of saying that Melbourne is the cultural capital of Australia. We like the fact that this is a city of ideas in the arts and media industries.

But how long will we be able to go on feeling proud of our creative people if the training opportunities aren't there? If the risk-takers aren't welcome any more?

Creative people in this town are genuinely frightened by the bleeding of the ABC - and with good reason. Will a shrunken national broadcaster retreat to Head Office in Sydney?

Will we lose Australia's only truly unifying voice? It's a frightening silence to contemplate.

The ABC embodies something basic and vital about the spirit of Australian democracy and creativity. It's something to be proud of.

Strong governments shouldn't be afraid of strong independent broadcastors.

And strong leadership doesn't run away from strong debate.

Or maybe it's just that they needed someone to blame for 13 years in the wilderness? And who better that the usual culprits: the sick, the old, the unemployed, the indigenous ... and Bananas in Pyjamas.

Millions of Australians share this sense of alarm about our national broadcaster.

Membership of Friends of the ABC has quadrupled. In one week, the Melbourne branch received 1,500 membership applications.

50,000 people turned out at a Save the ABC rally in Sydney.

The ABC needs widespread industry support too, because the fact is that commercial managements always keep an eye on what the ABC is nurturing.

As well as being a broadcaster of excellence, it does the market a big favour: it takes the risks and it takes them first.

The ABC needs strong and persistent defence from you - industry leaders. Because if it is allowed to be killed off in an act of spite, in a failure of imagination, how much easier will it be for other forms of investment and support to be chipped away?

Where will we look for an independent view?

When we defend the ABC, we're saying we're interested in the story of Australia.

We're saying we're proud of the national storyteller.

Industries like yours have always got to be quick on their feet. It's the nature of the game. But while you're up there - think of the future - and land a few punches for Aunty.

ENDS