Global reach for ABC not in national interest

THE comments by the ABC's managing director Mark Scott that he would like to see the public broadcaster expand into overseas broadcasting at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the Australian taxpayer is a classic case of thinking big with other people's money.

It is also an example of unnecessary empire building. Not content with running a public entity (one that does not even need to worry about advertising revenue to stay afloat) with an annual budget of more than $800 million, Scott wants to go cap in hand to the government after "one of the greatest assaults on global economic stability to have occurred in three-quarters of a century" (to quote Kevin Rudd) and ask for a funding injection right at a time when essential services will need to be contained to manage growing public debt.

This is the same MD who has so pointedly attacked News Limited's chairman, Rupert Murdoch, for daring to look at charging for online news content. Mr Scott described the move as classic "old empire" positioning.

There are many good reasons why a global ABC reach - to 96 countries worldwide, no less - is a waste of taxpayers' money and not in the national interest.

First, it is not the role of the ABC to go global and partake in "soft diplomacy" as Scott puts it. That is the role of the government. A public broadcaster plays a valuable role domestically (I would even be prepared to commit heresy at The Australian and cautiously entertain a public newspaper service to go with its radio and television operations). But a taxpayer-funded "independent" media agent spruiking the inherent virtues of Australia overseas - presumably in consultation with the government - threatens independence, or at least the perception of it.

Second, a middle-power nation such as Australia should not be trying to compete with superpowers, which use their public broadcasters to spread information overseas. Scott cites Australia's growing role in the G20 as reason to consider his proposal. Just because the Prime Minister likes to make Australia sound globally significant doesn't mean it is so. And when Scott cites larger overseas spending by superpowers on public broadcasting he should remember they have larger populations and spheres of influence to protect. That's why they also spend much more than Australia on defence, for example, something I assume the ABC MD isn't pushing for the government to match?Third, the public should be wary of growing publicly owned media because of the impact it can have on private media, not to mention when public broadcasting growth looks to markets that don't directly serve the taxpayers coughing up for the service. The increasingly commercial mindset of the ABC (witness for example Scott's presumed leaking of his speech advocating an overseas push ahead of its delivery to The Sydney Morning Herald) is a threat to niche content, which sections of the community enjoy but doesn't rate and therefore won't be touched by commercial operations. And if the public broadcaster is competing to get Australia's message out internationally against state-owned media from non-democracies such as China, our service is likely to become more compliant to government, damaging its credibility in the process.

Finally, even if each of the above obstacles can be overcome or argued against, now is not the right time for the ABC to go global anyway, given the tight fiscal conditions domestically and the concerns opposition MPs have with Scott's proposal.

State resources are finite and therefore need to be apportioned according to need. A request by the ABC for hundreds of millions of additional dollars in revenue is something a government looking to deal with record public debt should dismiss almost in an instant.

And if the opposition isn't prepared to lend bipartisan support to a plan that threatens the perceived independence of the public broadcaster, that should end the debate until opposition thinking can be turned around. Judging by the comments by the opposition spokesman for communications, Nick Minchin, when he was asked about Scott's idea last week, we can assume it will take some time to win the Coalition over.

At the Andrew Olle Media Lecture last Friday, Scott perceptively remarked: "As the ABC is funded by the taxpayer, we are rightly held to account for how we spend that money." Sound words.