From Crikey:
The closure of the Australia Network will lead the ABC to review its entire international operations. The network’s foreign correspondents fear this will lead to the closure of some of its foreign bureaux, resulting in a loss of nuanced understanding of global events as well as greater dangers for staff who fly in and out of conflict zones.
Last night’s federal budget revealed that, from July 1, the ABC will be funded on $29 million a year less than current levels. Of this, $8.8 million will come from a 1% reduction in total funding, which also applies to SBS’ budget, totalling up to some $43.5 million from the two broadcasters over four years. The rest will come from the Australia Network, which the government is axing. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop last night said the network, awarded to the ABC for 10 years last year in controversial circumstances, had “failed to deliver a cost-effective vehicle” for soft diplomacy into the region.
ABC staff this morning are considering what this means for them. Few are optimistic. “There’s real concern among foreign correspondents that the ABC will use the loss of the Australia Network contract as cover to drastically cut its foreign bureaux,” a senior journalist told Crikey this morning.
What an amazing exercise in Government waste this thing has been from the start. Not that’s wasn’t worthy, indeed it did a good job under successive governments that used it as a political football and thus prevented it from ever achieving larger goals.
Look out now for the resuscitation of the service as an online operation only, operated by Sky, and broadcasting some primitive notion of “Australian values”.
