Federal budget 2018: No more ABC fat to cut, Morris says

ABC news director Gaven Morris says any more funding cuts ‘cut into the muscle of the organisation’.

Gaven Morris. Picture: AAP

The ABC says there is “no more fat to cut” following the federal government’s announcement to slash $84 million in funding from the public broadcaster.

News director Gaven Morris has hit back at the three-year funding freeze announced in Tuesday’s federal budget, which maintains more than $1 billion a year for the broadcaster.

“Make no mistake, there is no more fat to cut at the ABC. Any more cuts to the ABC cut into the muscle of the organisation,” he told the Melbourne Press Club today.

The latest move comes on top of about $254 million in efficiency savings and cuts over several years, Mr Morris said.

Only about four per cent of the overall budget went to back office and overhead costs, he added.

“We’re as efficient as we’ve ever been,” he said. “We’re the most minutely scrutinised media organisation in Australia.”

When asked about potential job cuts, the news director declined to go into detail.

“$84 million over three years, there is simply no way we can achieve that without looking at content creation and certainly looking at jobs within the organisation,” Mr Morris said.

“A lot can happen between now and the middle of 2019, including a conversation with the government around a triennial funding submission (for 2019-2022).”

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann earlier said the funding freeze was “effectively equivalent to the efficiency dividend that applies to nearly all other government taxpayer-funded organisations”.

But opposition leader Bill Shorten accused the Coalition of cutting the ABC’s funding because the broadcaster was one of “the pet hates of the right wing of the Liberal Party”.

AAP