Federal budget 2022: Public broadcaster ABC gets $4.58 billion in funding
Australian taxpayers will cough up a staggering amount to fund the ABC over the next four years amid calls for major changes to how the public broadcaster operates.
Australian taxpayers are set to fork out a staggering $4.58 billion over the next four years to pay for the ABC amid calls for the nation to follow the UK and reform the trouble-prone broadcaster into a subscription service.
Attempts to rein in costs by pausing indexation have been dropped by the Morrison Government and the ABC also now expects to benefit from a $45.8 million boost for their journalists in local and regional communities.
But Institute of Public Affairs spokesman Evan Mulholland has called for the broadcaster — which has been plagued recently by controversies over bias and inaccuracies — to be privatised or reformed into a subscription based service.
“In 2022, with a multitude of media at the fingertips of every Australian, there is no valid argument to be spending billions of precious taxpayer dollars per year on the ABC,” Mr Mulholland said.
“Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Communications Minister Paul Fletcher should follow UK PM Boris Johnson’s lead with the BBC, and reform the ABC into a subscription service.
“If the ABC is as cherished as activist groups claim it is, then it will flourish as a private media organisation.
“It is a terrible indictment on the Morrison Government that it caved to political blackmail by activists and journalists who will never vote for them, and gave even more money to them.”
Recent ABC missteps include serious inaccuracies being aired during documentaries about the 1979 Ghost Train Fire as well as missing heiress and journalist Juanita Neilsen, along with other legal payouts following from social media posts made by ABC journalists and personalities.
Complaints of left-wing bias have also been made, as well as the ABC recently having to uphold a complaint by former conservative Senator Cory Bernardi which contained misleading allegations.
“From the Pell saga, to its disgraceful stories on Christian Porter and Alan Tudge, to its Qanon conspiracy theories about the Prime Minister, to its error ridden The Ghost Train Fire, and Juanita: A Family Mystery documentary, to staff social media activism, mainstream Australians are struggling to understand why the Morrison government would reward such poor behaviour,” Mr Mulholland said.
“The quiet Australians that supported Morrison at the 2019 election are now left with a bipartisan agreement to support a bloated, out of touch broadcaster.”
SBS will receive $392 million for operating activities and $71 million for transmission services this coming financial year.
The Federal Government also announced it would extend support for regional commercial broadcasters by providing a rebate of the Commercial Broadcasting Tax for an additional two years.
“This change is estimated to decrease revenue by $9.5 million over 2 years from 2022-23,” budget papers state.
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Originally published as Federal budget 2022: Public broadcaster ABC gets $4.58 billion in funding
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