ABC chairman Justin Milne defends national broadcaster

Justin Milne has warned moves to cripple the public broadcaster will lead to a further concentration of US media ownership.

ABC chairman Justin Milne and ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie. Picture: John Feder

ABC chairman Justin Milne says Australia is at a “decision point” about the future of the ABC and to cripple it will lead to a further concentration of US media ownership.

“Today Australia must decide whether it wants an ABC in the future,” Mr Milne said in an address to the American Chamber of Commerce in Sydney today.

“Perhaps we should leave the commercial media to entertain our toddlers, educate our students, define Australian culture, unite a nation, and serve regional audiences.

“Some would argue an enlightened private sector dominated by owners in the United States will find a way of marrying commercial and Australian national interest, and produce local content about the arts, sciences, religion or music. What could possibly go wrong?

Australia had faced similar “decision points in the past on public broadcasting,” said Mr Milne, who was appointed in March last year.

“The first was whether to establish an ABC, then whether to equip it to deliver a news service independent of the commercial media barons, then once again whether to invest in a public television service. And now, as we enter a digital age, Australia must decide whether it wants an ABC fit for the future, and if so, what investments the nation is willing to make to achieve that.”

Mr Milne sought to recast the debate around the ABC and step away from recent debates about errors by ABC journalists and questions of bias, citing key ABC aims including providing an independent and trusted voice, promoting informed democratic debate and investigative journalism.

Mr Milne said the ABC’s 4000 staff were “dedicated to telling the truth and providing accurate and impartial content” and that more than 80 per cent of Australians thought the ABC was not biased.

Instead, the key question was “how can Australia have a public broadcasting system that is fit for purpose, as efficient as possible, and just as valuable to our children as it has been to us?” he said.

Since the ABC’s creation in 1932, commercial media had tried to restrict the ABC’s news reporting and stop the ABC becoming a television broadcaster. “Yet the sniping of commercial foes and partisans has continued to this very day,” he said.

Mr Milne, a digital business executive and former Telstra executive, attacked calls for the ABC to vacate digital platforms.

“Of course, when you unpack this argument — even a little — it is revealed as simplistic, facile and entirely self-serving.” Hybrid public-private models for hospitals, airports, roads and public transport were widespread, he said.

Mr Milne pointed out that the pressure of digital giants including Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google meant media ownership is consolidating. “Our three pay television operators have become one, owned by the Australian arm of News Corporation in New York. Channel 10 is now in US hands too. And since 2003, the number of owners of Australian newspapers has halved.

“Whatever your view on the business or political logic of this, the effect has been to hand control over many Australian media voices to businesses in the US — while substantially diluting the diversity of voices that remain.

“Those who would cripple or even abolish the ABC would clearly exacerbate that consolidation, leading to further homogeneity of voices. That may mean that pretty soon our kids only see American stories and perspectives to mould their morals, culture and behaviour as adults. And those same kids would need to give up any aspiration to work in a healthy domestic production sector.”

Mr Milne said the ABC was more trusted than commercial media or Facebook and was vital to a health democracy.

“Trust is what we do at the ABC. We don’t push a proprietor’s line. We don’t take sides. Neither the managing director nor I can direct our journalists to say one thing or another, and most importantly, neither can any political interest. And it is this slavish endeavour to be accurate, truthful and impartial which entirely distinguishes the ABC from commercial media.”

“To paraphrase the European Commissioner for Human Rights: ‘you can’t have a healthy

democracy without a healthy public broadcaster’.”

The government is conducting an efficiency review into the ABC, as well as competitive neutrality inquiry, and wants the ABC to disclose the salaries of senior employees.

Mr Milne spoke as the ABC Friends supporter group stages public rallies in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, and in the wake of ABC broadcaster Jon Faine criticising ABC management for being too silent in the face of government attacks.

ABC managing director Michelle Guthrie last month rebuffed a vote by the Liberal Party federal council to privatise the ABC.

Australians resented the ABC “being used as a punching bag by narrow political, commercial and ideological interests,” she told the Melbourne Press Club.