Tony Abbott endures fiery Question Time after ABC reveals cuts

TONY Abbott endured a torrid Question Time today, as Bill Shorten hammered him over one very controversial policy.

TONY Abbott today refused to quote his own words as Labor used Question Time to harass the Prime Minister over his election-eve promise not to cut funds to the ABC and SBS.

The attacks left Mr Abbott struggling to defend himself just hours after the ABC revealed it would close outposts, production units and cut the jobs of some 400 staff to make up for a $250 million funding reduction.

Mr Abbott looked uncomfortable and unable to deny he had promised one thing during the final moments of the election campaign and delivered the opposite.

Meanwhile, Joe Hockey and Julie Bishop seemed less than troubled.

In a performance reminiscent of the Coalition’s barrages against the integrity of former Labor Prime Minister Julie Gillard over her “no carbon tax” promise, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten led the attack.

“Did the Prime Minister say on the night before the election, September 6, 2013, on SBS television, did he actually say, ‘No cuts to the ABC or SBS’?” said Mr Shorten.

Mr Abbott replied: “I didn’t say there would be any special treatment for the ABC.”

The Opposition also brought up the November 20 Victorian election, in which the Prime Minister is expected to have a limited role, unlike that of his popular Foreign Minister Julie Bishop.

Labor calculates the Federal Government’s proposed $7 Medicare co-payment would cost Victorians an extra $200 million a year and its petrol excise rise will cost them an extra $569 million over four years in what Mr Shorten called “another gift from a foreign nation called Tony Abbott.”

Of course, the two can put their differences aside from time to time.

Mr Shorten said Mr Abbott was “box office poison” to the Victorian Liberal campaign.

The Prime Minister fired back at the Opposition Leader by demanding to know whether a Labor government would restore the funds to the national broadcasters.

“This man with no answers and just one long complaint should stand up at the dispatch box and tell people is he going to give the ABC an extra $250 million? If he won’t do that he is a fraud,” said Mr Abbott.

And the Government attempted to counter Labor with a string of questions from its own side seeking to explain the benefits of the trade agreement with China.