ABC forced to ‘do more with less’, says chairman Kim Williams

In an address to the Melbourne Press Club to mark his one-year anniversary as chairman, Kim Williams bemoaned the fact that the ABC’s funding has dwindled over the past decade.

ABC chair Kim Williams laments the broadcaster’s funding at the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday. Picture: Diego Fedele

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ABC chairman Kim Williams has called on the federal government to “properly invest” in the public broadcaster, claiming the organisation’s current $1.1bn in taxpayer funding is “extremely low by historical standards”.

In an address to the Melbourne Press Club on Thursday to mark his one-year anniversary as ABC chairman, Mr Williams bemoaned the fact that the ABC’s funding had dwindled over the past decade, and argued that a well-funded public broadcaster was needed in order to sustain Australian democracy.

Last week’s budget papers revealed that in the next financial year, the ABC will receive $1.229bn in federal funding, an increase of $33m from 2024-25.

“In real terms it is more than $150m per annum less than it was in 2013,” Mr Williams said on Thursday.

“In the year 2000, funding for the ABC comprised 0.31 per cent of Commonwealth outlays.

“Today that is around 0.12 per cent, and we are called upon to do much more with it.

“As a result, Australia currently invests 40 per cent less per person in public broadcasting than the average for a comparable set of 20 OECD democracies.”

Flashback: Communications Minister Michelle Rowland and Anthony Albanese announce Kim Williams as the new ABC chair in January 2024. Picture: Martin Ollman

Mr Williams also said the weakening of the news media – both in Australia and overseas – represented a direct threat to democracy, and warned that unless the tech platforms pay for the journalism they use, the industry will not survive.

“Revenue streams have been choked off by the inexorable march of the tech titans – Meta, Google, Amazon, X and the rest,” he said.

The ABC chair said Australian politicians must recognise what’s at stake when considering measures to ensure news media outlets are fairly compensated for the news content that the tech platforms are using for free.

“Critics are describing initiatives like the Media Bargaining Code and the proposed News Bargaining Incentive as forms of ‘coercive and discriminatory tax’ and effectively ‘non-tariff trade barriers’,” he said

“This is not just about commercial interests. It is about the future health of democracy. And ultimately about national sovereignty.”

Mr Williams, who succeeded Ita Buttrose as ABC chair in March 2024, said under his watch, the public broadcaster would “aim to hold reliably high journalistic standards”.

“Objectivity is a definitional requirement of the profession. No objectivity, no true journalism. We are journalists reporting the truth, or we are propagandists defending untruth, or worse still promoting it,” he said.

“It is because our perceived independence is so central to our role as a public broadcaster, and because the role of a public broadcaster is so easily traduced by its opponents, that we cannot give an inch on this point.

“And as long as I am chair of the ABC, we will not give so much as a millimetre.”

Asked about Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s remarks earlier this week about potential cuts to the ABC should the Coalition win the federal election, Mr Williams said he welcomes scrutiny of the national broadcaster.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt that in the event of Mr Dutton acceding to office, that there will be a very early call for an efficiency and apparently an excellence review on what the ABC does. Game on,” he said.

Originally published as ABC forced to ‘do more with less’, says chairman Kim Williams