The Guardian 9 April, 2008
ABC management imposing Howard policies
Peter Mac
The ABC Board and management are still imposing the Howard government’s broadcasting policies, and have now announced that they will retrench staff, downsize the broadcaster’s internal production capability, and hand over more of its production to the private sector.
The production resources division (which produces in-house programs for ABC broadcasts), is to be merged with the resource hire division (which produces programs for sale to other organisations). Much of the in-house production is to be farmed out to commercial firms. TV director Kim Dalton has previously stated bluntly that eventually "ABC TV will move out of internal factual and documentary production". Exit such programs as Four Corners, presumably.
Managing director Mark Scott refused to say how many of the current staff would be "offered" redundancies, because he doesn’t want to pre-empt staff consultation.
However, Graeme Thomson from the Community and Public Sector Union, observed grimly: "…they tend to … tell you what they are going to do, and then call it consultation".
Scott claimed that the involvement of private production firms would allow the ABC to "work out whether they can cut production costs". However, redundancies will apparently take place regardless of any potential savings. Taking the "tough decisions" would strengthen the case to increase the broadcaster’s $850 million annual funding, so Scott claimed.
In fact, changing to private program production would in all probability increase running costs, not reduce them, because private firms have to pay their directors’ fees and maximise profits to satisfy shareholders.
The content of all internally-produced ABC programs will suffer, as the organisation moves from becoming a producer to simply a "publisher" of commercial productions. For example, the decision has already been made to close the ABC’s Natural History Unit, and there is no way that the private sector will allocate the time and resources to make nature programs of the quality that this section produced.
A private and dangerous road
The ABC management’s initiatives are very familiar to those who have worked for government agencies that have been privatised. In the case of the ABC, one of the first stages in this process was the conversion of the former Australian Broadcasting Commission into a corporation, which legally facilitates the sale of various components of the organisation, or even the organisation itself.
Profitable commercial outlets, such as the ABC shops, also provide an attractive lure for potential purchasers.
The gradual replacement of in-house productions with commercial programs is intended to limit the extent of any backlash from the public or unions.
The current initiatives within the ABC will make it far easier to privatise. They also undermine its role as an independent broadcaster and social critic.
The ABC Board
The ABC Board is still dominated by Howard government appointees. As the community organisation Friends of the ABC noted; "Labor has not taken the opportunity to ‘balance’ the right wing tilt of the current Board…"
The Howard government changed the broadcasting legislation to eliminate staff representation on the ABC, board, just after employees had voted in current affairs host, Quentin Dempster, as their representative. The Friends have noted that the Rudd government need not wait until the replacement of Liberal Senate members in July to restore the former legislation, but could simply reappoint Dempster under ministerial responsibility to one of two Board positions which will fall vacant shortly.
So far the government has shown no inclination to do so, reinforcing the impression that its policies may not be very different from those of its predecessor.
Funding and ads
The Howard government progressively reduced ABC program production funding. It also encouraged ABC management to introduce "cyberspace" advertising in ABC programs available over the internet. The ABC Act prohibits advertising on radio and TV, but is silent on internet broadcasting.
As Quentin Dempster previously stated, "the current ABC Board cannot be relied on to advocate the cause of independent public broadcasting. It is in an ideological and party-political bog. If it is out to destroy the so-called ABC culture, introducing advertising on the ABC should do the trick."
Dempster noted that the Rudd government has promised to "prohibit advertising, stop the party-political stack of the ABC Board and restore the staff-elected position in the ABC Act".
However, the government does not appear to be pursuing these issues vigorously, nor does it seem greatly concerned about the proposed retrenchments. After all, it was the Hawke and Keating Labor governments which initiated mass retrenchments in the Commonwealth public service.
Dempster observed: "… it is hard to forget that under the Hawke/Keating governments … the ABC was substantially defunded. Pressure must be maintained on the Rudd government to rebuild the ABC’s creative capacity and to protect the multicultural purpose of SBS. Those who want the ABC to survive as an adequately funded, independent, mainstream and non-commercial public broadcaster will have to fight hard. We must never get tired."