An ABC-Friendly Turnbull

I have a number of problems with the Member for Wentworth and Shadow Communications Minister, Malcolm Turnbull not least his fawning over the ABC.  I believe Malcolm is with the wrong Party.

Lateline’s Tony Jones interviewed Malcolm Turnbull on Thursday.

Here’s part of the transcript relating to the ABC discussion.

TONY JONES: OK, let's go to another area of your Communications portfolio. The Government gave the ABC a $10 million funding boost for its news and current affairs division last week. Do you support that?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well I don't need to support it, but I welcome it.

TONY JONES: Do you endorse it? Do you think it's a good idea?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: I am a great supporter of the ABC. It is not entirely immaculate. It does have some flaws. Even you err on occasions, Tony. But the - smile! Lighten up! But seriously though, the ABC is more important than ever. The news media business, the newspaper business in particular, is under enormous threat and their business model is challenged, there are journalists losing their jobs all the time, newspapers may or may not be viable in a few years' time, so the importance, the role, the significance of the ABC's news and current affairs is more important than ever and that puts a very heavy burden on the ABC to maintain the highest standards of balance, of integrity.

And you know, as Jim Spigelman, your chairman, said the other day, and I thought it was a very, very, very keen insight, as you'd expect from Jim - he said that the ABC relates to its viewers and listeners not simply as consumers, as a commercial operation might, but as citizens.

So the ABC has a very, very heavy responsibility and Australians expect it to live up to that and of course the research indicates they have very high regard for this organisation.

TONY JONES: Now Jim Spigelman you mentioned, the chairman of the ABC, also said in an interview on this program not so long ago that one of the great fears the ABC has is of funding cuts. Obviously they think back to the beginning of the Howard government in '96 and '97 when 12.6 per cent of the ABC's operating budget was essentially cut by the government in a cost-cutting exercise. Would you be in a position to assure listeners, viewers that this won't happen again if the Coalition comes to government let's say at the end of this year?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well what I can say to you is that we don't have any plans to cut the funding to the ABC.

TONY JONES: That you know of?

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well, that I know of, yes. It's unlikely that there would be plans to do that that I wouldn't know of, but that I know of, I'm not aware of any plans to cut funding to the ABC.

But having said that, let me just say this: government is under pressure - every department is under pressure and the ABC's management - and I believe they understand this - the ABC's management has to be aware that it has an obligation to its owners, the Australian people, to run this vast enterprise of the ABC as efficiently, as cost effectively as possible.

And I - look, I have a high regard for your chief executive, Mark Scott. I think he is very focused on getting more bang for the taxpayers' buck.

TONY JONES: You're talking about an economic argument, but of course what's often used against the ABC is a bias argument and some people maintain the ABC's budget should be cut because it has bias internally. "Group think" I think was one of the phrases used by a former ABC chairman.

MALCOLM TURNBULL: Well that is the - that's not a good reason to cut the budget. If the ABC is not being fair and balanced, then that is an issue that should be addressed by the ABC's management. ABC's - you know, there are plenty of arguments for cutting any government agency's budget. One is that if you've got to cut spending and everybody's got to bear some of the pain, so that's - there can be general across-the-board cuts.

I think the important challenge the ABC has is to ensure that its work practices reflect the enormous efficiencies that modern technology delivers. The fact is that every aspect of what this television network does, radio network does can be done much more efficiently because of modern technology, the latest technology.

If the ABC is more important than ever, Malcolm, then don’t you think it must reflect impartiality and balance as a matter of course, regardless of what the ABC’s Code of Practice states?  Don’t you think there should be conservatives in the front line, presenting  and/or directing programmes to ensure there IS balance?  You do know, don’t you, Malcolm, that there is not one conservative presenter or host on the ABC, other than perhaps, Amanda Vanstone who hosts and obscure Radio National programme – and who listens to RN?

I ask you this, Malcolm, can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me the ABC has maintained “the highest standards of balance, of integrity” ? The ABC does have a heavy responsibility to the taxpayer and quite frankly, it has failed to live up to that responsibility.

Malcolm, should you become Communications Minster later this year then I suggest one of your first missions should be to put the fire hose through the ABC starting with the Board and Managing Director, Mark Scott and work your way down to the cleaners.  The ABC needs a massive purge and in fairness to everyone, some belt-tightening.  If that cannot be achieved, then break Aunty up and put her up for sale. 

The Gillard Government’s recent $10 Million funding injection is clearly an exercise in pork-barrelling in an election year.  Blatant strategy to curry as much favour as it can. 

Taxpayers have had a gutful of having to fund a Green-Labor mouth piece year after year.  We know ABC Management has failed spectacularly to ensure the ABC is balanced and fair and you should be well aware of that, Malcolm.  Something must be done and I am expecting you to do it as a matter of priority.  Are you up to the challenge or will you roll over and let the ABC continue as is? 

The ABC has become a law unto itself with an apparent attitude that it needs only to satisfy the cravings of a small sector of inner-city self-analysed elites to the detriment of the wider population.   No wonder Aunty’s ratings have suffered.

The Australian’s Chris Kenny has an interesting article here:  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/opinion/columnists/aunty-still-in-denial-but-proving-political-bias-is-as-easy-as-abc/story-fn8qlm5e-1226578726810