ABC says regional changes to ‘get reporters on road’

The ABC has moved to allay concerns among regional Coalition MPs that the public broadcaster is further cutting services in regional Australia.

The ABC has moved to allay concerns among regional Coalition MPs that the public broadcaster is further cutting services in regional Australia.

ABC director of regional Fiona Reynolds said there would be no redundancies, budget cuts or lessening of regional content as a result of programming changes in which regional radio breakfast programs will extend to fill the hour after 9am with a new feature-based program, Local Life, to run from 10-11am.

“There are no job losses associated with this, the budget is not being cut, we will have the same number of presenters we will have the same number of programs,” she said.

Furious Nationals MPs believe local morning presenters will be axed in major centres, as happened recently with the dumping of Newcastle afternoon host Carol Duncan in favour of a Sydney show.

Queensland senator Ian Macdonald said he was “absolutely outraged” at the proposed change, with cuts made to pay for “yet another coffee machine at Ultimo”.

“Yet again, they are trying to fleece their loyal regional listeners to try and pass off their cosmopolitan programming as plausible content,” he said.

Victorian Liberal MP Dan Tehan said the ABC treated rural and regional audiences like second-class citizens. “They are funded to provide a service to all Australians. There are a multitude of options for city listeners to tune into breakfast shows ... so why wouldn’t they start by cutting there? This isn’t about cuts, it is about the management being so out of touch they might as well be operating from the moon.”

Any change to regional services is a hot-button issue for regional MPs at a time when commercial regional broadcasters say proposed media reforms will hinder their ability to provide local TV and radio in regional areas.

This follows the ABC’s own recent regional issues, including the axing of Radio National’s Bush Telegraph, the closure of five regional radio posts, and radio news bulletins being cut.

Ms Reynolds said the changes aimed to free staff to report from the road rather than be stuck in studios. She said some morning presenters would remain on air and possibly host their version of Local Life. She could not say how many of the ABC’s 48 regional locations would change programming but Newcastle, Tasmania and some West Australian stations would be exempt.