Regional Communications Minister Bridget McKenzie’s push to change ABC

There is a push within the Coalition to see changes to the public broadcaster so it better represents regional Australia.

There is a push within the Coalition to see significant changes at the ABC to better represent regional Australia.

Drawing a larger cohort of reporters from regional areas, moving the ABC’s offices out of Ultimo and Southbank, and diversifying board representatives are part of the latest push by the Coalition to overhaul the public broadcaster.

Minister for Regional Communications Bridget McKenzie has revealed her plans to help ensure the ABC better represents mainstream Australia and said she hoped to “see more change” in the future.

Her proposals come just a few weeks after The Australian revealed ABC chair Ita Buttrose admitted the public broadcaster was “too east coast-centric”.

“All of the ABC programs apart from local ABC and 7pm news are very east coast-centric and most of the guests are from up and down the east coast states,” she said in a speech last month.

Ms McKenzie said the federal government was looking closely at the ABC to ensure it was fulfilling its duties as a national broadcaster.

“I think there’s a great desire within the Coalition, both National and Liberal party ministers and backbenchers, to see more change,” she said in an Institute of Public Affairs podcast titled Their ABC.

Ms McKenzie has previously developed a Bill that she said would see two permanent positions on the board be reserved for people who “had a significant impact from the regions in their lives or their professional careers”.

In the podcast, Ms McKenzie said the ABC had “too few” journalists who hailed from regional areas. Instead, the vast majority of the public broadcaster’s young reporters were from urban areas, and when they were sent to the regions to work for a few years they “don’t necessarily understand” the smaller communities.

IPA’s director of communications Evan Mulholland said Ms McKenzie’s comments were “the most significant prospect for ABC reform in some time”.

“With so many scandals, examples of bias, and chaos at the national broadcaster, the momentum for reform has never been stronger,” he said.

In June, ABC managing director David Anderson announced the public broadcaster’s intention to move 300 employees from their inner-Sydney headquarters to new facilities at Parramatta in the city’s west. It’s part of a five-year plan to see 75 per cent of content work outside Ultimo.

The ABC’s managing director David Anderson last week said a new deal struck between the ABC and Google meant “more high-quality local journalism for regional communities”.