ABC boss David Anderson wants $5m for ‘new normal’ of bushfire coverage

The ABC will ask the federal government for an extra $5m a year to respond to the ‘new normal’ of bushfire coverage.

ABC Managing Director David Anderson at today’s Senate estimates hearing. Picture: AAP

The ABC managing director will ask the federal government for an extra $5m a year to respond to the “new normal” of bushfire coverage, but has admitted it would include the cost of news reporting, just like that done by other media outlets.

Managing director David Anderson also told the Senate estim­ates communications committee on Tuesday the ABC would consider selling buildings to save money and will make a decision on how a budget freeze would affect staff numbers by this month.

Mr Anderson said the ABC would ask Communications Minister Paul Fletcher for another $5m a year to cope with bushfire- and emergency-related reporting, saying the bushfire coverage cost it an extra $3m this year.

“The minister has both publicly and in meetings with me asked (me) to spell out to him exactly what those additional costs have been. I’ve advised him of that figure,’’ he told the senators.

“We estimate it’s going to cost $5m per annum if this is going to be the new normal … we need to bolster our resources in future to meet the challenge.’’

Asked whether he would make the case to the minister for the extra funding, he said: “Yes.”

However, asked whether the $3m cost, and the $5m in extra funds required, included the costs of disaster reporting like that done by other networks, Mr Anderson admitted funds were also used for normal reporting and not emergency broadcast.

“That’s all up, including the reporting,’’ he said. “Around the Christmas period, we had to be more local than ever and have rolling coverage … and when it comes to reporting, deploying people out of our state and territ­ory newsrooms every day, we needed extra resources.’’

Liberal senator David Van asked: “Just to be clear, part of that was reporting (what) many other stations were doing as well as the life-saving announcement part of it?’’

“Yes,” Mr Anderson replied.

The managing director said he had written to Mr Fletcher in late January asking that the government reconsider its pause on indexation of funding to the ABC, which receives more than $1bn in taxpayer funds a year. He said the freeze would cost $84m over the three-year period.

Mr Anderson said he would be making an announcement to staff in March on the possibility of budget cuts and redundancies at the ABC, but he ruled out cuts to regional coverage.

“There will be an effect on our content as well as our staff,’’ he said. “I have indicated that in March, this month, I will be coming back to staff both in regard to a five-year plan … and how we intend to meet those challenges.’’

Mr Fletcher wrote to Mr Anderson­ this week suggesting the broadcaster sell some of its building assets, including its headquarters in Sydney’s Ultimo and Melbourne’s Southbank.

The ABC boss said he was considering the proposal as the ABC had sold parts of its building portfolio in the past, and was discussing further sales with the government. But Mr Anderson said selling property would not solve the ABC’s funding shortfall.

“It has been put to me, can we acquit our budget shortfalls by selling our properties?’’ he said, before adding, “that only deals with a one-off sale, not an ongoing efficiency you need to find”.