Review into ABC and SBS financial stability

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland has revealed details of a review set out to protect the ABC and SBS from funding cuts and political interference.

The federal government in October revealed the ABC would receive a $83.7m sweetener after it reversed Coalition cuts and reinstalled annual indexation. Picture: AAP

A federal government review will examine the “financial stability and certainty” for the nation’s public broadcasters to protect against potential cuts and political interference.

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland revealed details of the review at activist group ABC Friends’ Victoria 2022 dinner in Melbourne on Tuesday night, saying it would look at “measures to support the stability and independence of the national broadcasters, the ABC and SBS”.

The review, to be conducted by the minister’s department, is ­already under way and comes after the government announced at its federal budget in October that it would be boosting ABC funding and extending funding terms to five years for both the ABC and SBS from July 1 next year.

“The ABC must be funded to a level that ensures it can fulfil its charter to provide high-quality, accessible and diverse programming,” Ms Rowland said.

“And deliver public-interest journalism that holds people in positions of power to account, exposes corruption and injustice, and counters dangerous mis­information and disinformation campaigns.

“Our public broadcasters must be safeguarded from political interference and arbitrary cuts.”

She said the review “will not be an opportunity to debate the quantum of funding for the nat­ional broadcasters”, and “will not review the efficiency of the nat­ional broadcasters, or consider proposals to merge the ABC and SBS”.

The review will be conducted via public consultation in 2023.

The federal government in October revealed the ABC would receive a $83.7m sweetener after it reversed Coalition cuts and reinstalled annual indexation.

Despite this, the SBS will relatively miss out.

In the next four years, SBS will receive $1.32bn in total base funding, climbing from $316m in 2022-23 to $338m by 2025-26.

At Tuesday’s event, Ms Rowland also spoke of other funding measures, including $15m in support for local journalism and local jobs that she said would benefit more than 200 publications.