I see that the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Act 1983 contains a provision which more or less instructs the ABC to provide equal time to the government and the opposition when we have entered into an election period. The present question is whether we are in an election period of not. But why debate this question. We should make this a permanent obligation on any publicly financed media outlet in Australia, and not just during an official election period.
I think this provision for equal time provides the answer to the problem that has beset right-side parties in dealing with the ABC almost since its start. The ABC is not, however, a privately owned broadcaster, it is a publicly owned, taxpayer-funded organisation. It is we the people who are the owners and we the people have a diverse array of views that it ought to be the obligation of publicly funded media organisations to reflect.
An incoming Coalition Government must therefore make this provision for equal time not just a necessity during an official election period however defined but a permanent provision that must be adopted at all times and in all circumstances by any broadcaster financed more than 50% by public monies. No such provision should ever be applied to privately financed organisations who so far as political content is concerned must be left free to say whatever they please.
It may not appeal to an incoming Coalition government to provide such a forum to Labor, but truth to tell, they have it anyway. Such an amendment to the Act that covers the ABC, SBS and Radio Australia would not only appear fair and reasonable but would be. The ABC and SBS could have its Leigh Sales and George Negus to its heart’s content but they would also have to balance this with a fair dose of Andrew Bolt and Alan Jones.
And I don’t mean this as a bit of whimsy. This ought to become hard and fast Coalition policy. Not only will it be seen widely as fair and balanced, but it will actually be a major step towards protecting our democracy. There really will be open debate on all issues that is fostered by our public broadcaster.
A Government such as the one we are now blessed with, which has actively sought to reduce the media’s ability to report and criticise, can have nothing to say about a provision that will insist that all sides of every policy issue are heard and debated in the public forum.
It should also be a component of this Act that the ABC, SBS and Radio Australia demonstrate in their Annual Reports exactly how it has complied with this provision, by showing that equal time has been devoted to presenting both sides of every major political question.
You can find a similar article of mine at Quadrant Online.
Um no. A public broadcaster in this day and age is an anachronism.
Just get rid of it. It’s not as if we can afford it anymore due to Labor’s profligate spending.
Joe
7 Feb 13 at 11:13 am
What Joe said…
Forester
7 Feb 13 at 11:19 am
Better to make use of Labor’s fiscal irresponsibility to justify merging the ABC & SBS, drastically reducing their funding and selling off stations, frequencies and stations til it is only a tiny rump of the current bloated behemoth. Then you should bring in the permanent equal time requirement.
Jon Faine’s non-apology to Michael Smith despite adverse findings by the ABC’s own labyrinthine and opaque “complaints process” shows how the current ABC is unaccountable and a law unto itself. The organisation needs pruning as well as reform.
Cold-Hands
7 Feb 13 at 11:19 am
Interesting issue is their Classical FM service. For starters it can’t be heard in rural areas, and to commercialise it, given the existing demographics,would spell its death – unless that part of the ABC service was retained as a public service.
Hmm fossil music funded by the fossil fuel industry might be a commerical proposition…….
Louis Hissink
7 Feb 13 at 11:27 am
+ 1 for what Joe said. Just get rid of it.
Gibbo
7 Feb 13 at 11:28 am
‘Equal time’ legislation will just mean that the leftist journos will spend half their time praising Labor and the Greens and half their time attacking the Liberals as evil rightwing death bogans.
Therein lies the problem, short of forcing them to hire Andrew Bolt, it’s difficult to enforce ‘balance’, and lefties will always naturally be attracted to a publicly funded organisation.
As Joe said, not having publicly funded media would be a better option.
Or simply remove all political content from the ABC (it’s an inherent conflict of interest for state-owned media to be reporting on government matters), and just use it for David Attenborough documentaries and highbrow arts programs that might not otherise get a run on commercial TV
papachango
7 Feb 13 at 11:30 am
snap – see my post re removing all political content and just leaving this stuff.
papachango
7 Feb 13 at 11:31 am
I must admit that it’s nice to watch TV without ad breaks every 5 minutes, although time shifting mitigates that.
There’s no way I’d ever watch anything on 7, 9 and 10 or SBS in real time.
papachango
7 Feb 13 at 11:37 am
Gerry Harvey could get Andre Rieu to redo his jingle for Classic FM…
Forester
7 Feb 13 at 11:38 am
An incoming Coalition Government must therefore hire Roger Ailes for 5 yearss to run the ABC as a private company with step-wise decreases in government funding to 50% whereupon the broadcaster is sold to the market with a gauranteed $100 million annually to provide programming for the arts and regional Australia and that funding then subsequently offered for tendering to the market every 10 years
JamesK
7 Feb 13 at 11:41 am
As an addendum we don’t need yet more regulations of our media.
I’m surprised with Kates.
JamesK
7 Feb 13 at 12:04 pm
Um who is this ‘we’ pale-face?
Tonto
7 Feb 13 at 12:08 pm
Superficially a very attractive proposition. But as others have pointed out, removal of all political content would achieve most purposes.
Classical music, sport, remote area education (?) weather forecasts, stock reports and emergency broadcasting even religious broadcasts, remain useful and uncontroversial functions for a government broadcaster.
Tapdog
7 Feb 13 at 12:16 pm
Wrong! It’s widely available and is one of the bits of the ABC that works well and delivers a great product – slagging classical music is not a way to enhance your image, commenters. May as well diss all old writers while you’re at it, and recommend comics instead.
Agree with Papachango above, it’s not about equal time, it’s about equal treatment too. Removing all the politically slanted content would be essential, and in the end, I think retain just the regional local stations and some music. Scrapping the lot might be attractive, but there is an argument for those bits which work well to continue under non-partisan rules.
The other tricks they use all the time in NEWSCAF are: selecting “experts” who agree with their position, and simply refusing to cover subjects that they don’t like the drift of. All these problems can’t be overcome by equal time alone.
Scott has failed abjectly to do what he said he’d do.
It’s the same old voices.
blogstrop
7 Feb 13 at 12:20 pm
If you have access to digital radio, you can listen to thousands of radio stations from across the world, many of which specialise in classical music.
It is a redundant service.
If people want an Australian station let them sponsor the 2MBS community station or similar.
Token
7 Feb 13 at 12:31 pm
And not just overtly “political” stuff. The problem, as blogstrop observed, is that it’s not practicable to insist on “equal treatment”. There will always be a way to slant any sort of commentary or news reporting to reflect the inner bias. Is it “marriage equality” or “same sex marriage”? Who decides that a scandal is “not worth covering”?
Any system that can be gamed, will be gamed. The only way to prevent this is to not let them play, by imposing an absolute prohibition on news and current affairs. It’s a sad end to a once well respected institution; but they have proven themselves untrustworthy and will have to go.
Cato the Elder
7 Feb 13 at 12:38 pm
Classical FM in rural areas – not in the rural areas I frequent I can tell you – it’s AM Radio National and that’s it, and listening to the internet via a wireless dongle attached to the laptop – I could imagine a better way to suffer. Mind you classical music isn’t all that popular in the boon docks – country music is and the that’s not high on the ABC preferred content either – plying country is implying support of the redneckers.
Louis Hissink
7 Feb 13 at 12:42 pm
If Emma Alba-screachy gives Bob Brown & Tony Abbott the same amount of time on the show, you can be assured the hostility and screatchiness will not be the same for both guests, and the endless string of untruths by Brown will not be followed up.
Privatise it.
Token
7 Feb 13 at 12:43 pm
So.. how does that apply to greenfilth then? 1/3 each? Hey presto, pretty much back where we are.
DriftForge
7 Feb 13 at 12:44 pm
The only problem with privatising the ABC is that remote rural communities do rely on the radio broadcast for vital pieces of information. Taking that away is not good for rural communities.
Andrew
7 Feb 13 at 12:45 pm
So continue to waste taxpayers $1 billion per year on lining Tony Jpnes, Red Kez, Leigh Sales, Jon Faine, Marius Benson, La ‘activist’ Kelly with $1 million to $500k whilst funding inane losers like Michelle Grattan and Bob Ellis with a $100k of pocket change per year?
JamesK
7 Feb 13 at 12:52 pm
Would this mean that for every new corruption scandal involving the ALP, they’d have to find one equally significant on the Coalition side? Because I’m not sure that’s even possible.
south
7 Feb 13 at 12:52 pm
Then go “Dragnet” on ‘em — just the facts.
Cato the Elder
7 Feb 13 at 12:52 pm
+1 again for selling it.
The Libs should go back to the ABC Charter, package up everything that is not a pure “market failure” (for want of a better descriptor) and sell it.
The real issue is cultural. When you have got people like Fran Kelly, Lyndal Curtis et al front and centre in “news and current affairs” what hope is there?
If they are not prepared to do that it’s funding should be shrunk to about 1/4 of its present size and let the luvvies work out what bits they want to save. The idea of funding a $1bn per annum broadcaster makes as much sense as funding a $1bn horse and buggy manufacturer today.
H B Bear
7 Feb 13 at 12:55 pm
I thought this blog posted libertarian views.
The original arguments for a government broadcaster are no longer relevant. Government broadcasters should be defunded.
There is nothing they do that isn’t already done by the private sector.
I don’t buy the rural communities argument. There are community radio stations in most already. No need for big government to compete against them.
Scott
7 Feb 13 at 12:55 pm
We don’t need the ABC any more in anywhere other than remote areas of Australia. Why should taxpayers money be spent on providing something that the market already supplies in abundance, especially in the Internet age. Keep a rural news service and dispose of the rest of it. I don’t care about charters of even-handedness or any of that rubbish because they can be gamed and worked around. Getting rid of the source of the problem is better.
tbh
7 Feb 13 at 1:01 pm
I agree.
Sell off and divest the overtly political bits and gift the worthwhile, marketable parts to the public in a corporation with fully transferable shares.
.
7 Feb 13 at 1:03 pm
In my experience, there is very little access to other radio networks and the rural ABC radio can be very good for emergencies such as bushfires. Other than that, I object to the ABC being publicly funded.
Andrew
7 Feb 13 at 1:06 pm
Mobile phones
CB radio
The internet (and newer stuff like social networking)
All of which, have been around for a long time.
.
7 Feb 13 at 1:09 pm
At the moment there is no effective alternative to the ABC local radio stations as “Emergency Services Broadcasters”. But this is about the only ABC service that is necessary and irreplaceable. The rest can be sold off to pay off Labor’s deficit.
Cold-Hands
7 Feb 13 at 1:14 pm
Digital Radio and the Internet render the ABC worthless.
During the recent storms and power outages I couldn’t even find an AM radio in the house anyway, but my mobile internet was still working fine.
If you don’t want ads in your shows, solutions such as iTunes have already sprung up. If you could order a seasons worth of ‘Bob the Builder’ streamed to your TV, then what does the ABC really need to exist for?
If rural people want radio stations, they should either have an advertiser or subscriber based service. The costs of putting out a radio station have fallen immensely.
Recently in the US my rental car had Sirius satellite radio in it. Subscriber based, no ads and eleventy million different channels, all crystal clear with no breakup, and available right across the US and Canada.
brc
7 Feb 13 at 1:32 pm
The ABC refers to those who would profit from the coal leases as Businessmen. Honest business people must cringe at the use of the word. It is akin to describing female fraudsters as Mothers. Well, I think so, but it’s a pretty disingenuous argument on my part. Maybe i should join the ALP.
face ache
7 Feb 13 at 1:39 pm
This seems a pretty dumb idea. The govt does lots of things, whether run by the libs or labor, the opposition, not so much. and, it’s not like we have a problem with monolithic federal govts never being defeated.
Pedro
7 Feb 13 at 1:45 pm
Given every classical listener in rural areas an iPod filled with classical music. Replace every 12 months. Would be cheaper than continuing to run radio services.
boy on a bike
7 Feb 13 at 1:45 pm
The ABC collective would easily circumvent this proposal.
A future Coalition government must come up with a policy that the collective would find impossible to obey and an inflexible Managing Director to prosecute it so as to send the luvvies out on indefinite strike so as to void any employment contracts etc. Then sell off the hardware, frequencies, whatever is sellable.
ABC ‘classical’, like the rest of the joint, is a job creator with too much time devoted to commentary and vacuous chatter.
I recommend Radio Swiss Classic (via iTunes) to genuine classical music lovers.
manalive
7 Feb 13 at 1:50 pm
Listen the programs from radio stations in London/NY or another society which has a real cultural love of classical music and you’ll soon hear what a cultural desert ABC classic is.
Anyone can download such programs daily to an Ipod/Iphone/Android and listen at their leisure.
Token
7 Feb 13 at 2:06 pm
It’s actually the digital DAB+ radio that’s not available in rural/regional areas. It’s capital cities only, probably for at least another two years.
There are quite a few classic FM stations listed in regional areas.
But all forms of radio are under threat from internet based radio over time, and access via phones and tablets will be part of that.
The beauty of good ol’ AM radio is that it carries a long way and can be received on basic, cheap, battery powered trannies.
blogstrop
7 Feb 13 at 2:07 pm
Give them the real choice, a hospital emergency department or the ABC.
Fact is with the cost base and capital of both services growing both services compete for resources. Let voters make an informed choice which is more important and agree to forego the other.
Token
7 Feb 13 at 2:08 pm
Agree, brc – satellite radio would be great and would be a help in this wide land.
blogstrop
7 Feb 13 at 2:09 pm
Yes but that choice won’t be put in those terms. Because “shut up!” on the ALP side; and because the current Libs are more big government conservatives than small government types.
Cato the Elder
7 Feb 13 at 2:29 pm
The subsidy hogs have been to the trough again…
Token
7 Feb 13 at 3:37 pm
Token, I’m happy to abolish the ABC, but that’s not the original suggestion. The permanent time equivalence idea is a stupid reform to an entity that should not exist.
Pedro
7 Feb 13 at 4:23 pm
No Steve! They should just not exist full stop! Sell off the ABC, SBS and radio national. You can change the laws all you want mate, it won’t make a lick of difference. The ABC is already required to be balanced. They refuse. The legislation is very clear about when an election period begins for the purpose of equal air time – there is no debate open about it -and yet the ABC have publicly flipped their finger at the requirement. Effectively saying that their interpretation of the Act overrides the very clear words of the Act. They couldn’t be more clear that they consider themselves a law unto themselves. No more. Sell them off and let all those leftists/statists fund themselves.
Luke
7 Feb 13 at 4:36 pm
What Luke said. Sink or swim.
Honesty
7 Feb 13 at 5:03 pm
Remove all news and commentary seems a good plan.
And why we needed ABC24 is anyone’s guess.
MichaelC58
7 Feb 13 at 5:56 pm
Nuke em for orbit, it’s the only way to be sure.
gnasher
7 Feb 13 at 7:06 pm
I really like this idea, Cold-Hands. It’d be interesting to see how many hipster specs, wanky hats and stupid scarves came out to protest something like this. I’m sure the ABC would cover it, with whatever they had left.
Marky
7 Feb 13 at 7:51 pm
does anyone still watch the ABC?
Jim Rose
7 Feb 13 at 7:58 pm
I still watch the ABC TV and listen to various radio stations. I grew up with the old stodgy ABC that showed marvellous things like The Forsyte Saga and Clochemerle, and who cares if they were local or not.
Radio is a pretty mixed menu, with the hardline commo current affairs, the lefty-bookweavers, the once-were-scientists and the Sydney Morning 702 Mad Ladies.
blogstrop
7 Feb 13 at 8:10 pm