Fifield reassures Milne: we’re not out to destroy ABC

The government does not want to destroy the ABC, the Communications Minister has told the broadcaster.

The government does not want to destroy the ABC, the Communications Minister has told the chairman of the national broadcaster.

ABC chairman Justin Milne said yesterday Communications Minister Mitch Fifield wrote to reassure him after a non-binding Liberal Party federal council vote to privatise the national broadcaster.

The letter restated the long-standing government position that the ABC would always remain in public hands.

Mr Milne revealed the existence of the letter during a time of heightened political tensions, government-backed reviews and inquiries into public broadcasting and a series of public rallies.

“The government is not trying to destroy the ABC, the Prime Minister is not, the Minister for Communications is not,” Mr Milne said yesterday.

Mr Milne told the American Chamber of Commerce in Australia during a lunch in Sydney that commercial media organisations were trying to “clip our wings”, which “could lead to a decline”, he said.

“It would suit some of our commercial rivals not to see us in digital, but that would ultimately lead to our demise,” he said after delivering a speech about the future of the national broadcaster.

Mr Milne, a digital business executive and former Telstra managing director, attacked calls for the ABC to vacate digital platforms, describing the arguments about public broadcasters harming commercial businesses as “simplistic, facile and entirely self-serving”.

Mr Milne said the pressure of digital giants such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple and Google meant media ownership was 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,” he said.

“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.”

The Australian is published by News Corp Australia.

Mr Milne said more than 80 per cent of Australians thought the ABC was not biased. “Trust is what we do at the ABC,” he said.

The government has frozen ABC funding from next year, costing the ABC $84 million.