ABC reprimanded for calling the most destructive politician of his generation "the most destructive politician of his generation"

It seems poor 'Aunty' ABC was caught out for telling a basic truth about former sacked Australian Prime Minister and current Liberal MP for Warringah Anthony John "Tony" Abbott.

She should have known better - that judgement is not due to be handed down by historians until the day after his earthly demise.

Until then Australian voters must politiely pretend in public they have no idea this is so.

Australian Communications and Media Authority, media release, 1 May 2018:

A statement contained in an ABC News report breached the impartiality provisions of the ABC Code of Practice (the code), the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found.

The ACMA investigated a complaint about an ABC News report, broadcast nationally on 10 October 2017, covering a climate change speech by former prime minister the Hon. Tony Abbott, MP to the Global Warming Policy Foundation think tank.

The investigation found the report generally demonstrated fair treatment and open-mindedness in the way it presented Mr Abbott’s views on climate change over time.

However, a statement made to camera by the ABC’s political editor that Mr Abbott was ‘the most destructive politician of his generation’ was declarative and not in keeping with the scope of the factual matters presented earlier in the report.

The ACMA considered the statement judgemental, not in language considered as analysis and one that the ordinary reasonable viewer would have understood as a pejorative descriptor. As a result, the ACMA found a breach of Standard 4.1 of the code, in that the report was not presented with due impartiality.

‘The impartiality provisions in the ABC’s own code require it to demonstrate balance and fair treatment when presenting news, and avoid conveying a prejudgement’ said ACMA Chair Nerida O’Loughlin.

‘This is only the second breach by the ABC of its impartiality rules since 2011. While this demonstrates strong compliance with these important provisions of the code, the ABC did not get it right on this occasion,’ Ms O’Loughlin said.

The ABC has advised the ACMA that ABC News will incorporate the ACMA finding into its editorial compliance training programs. The ACMA accepts this as an appropriate action by the ABC in the circumstances.

For more information, please contact: Emma Rossi, Media and Communications Manager (02) 9334 7719, 0434 652 063 or media@acma.gov.au

Media release 11/2018 - 1 May

Wear the reprimand with pride, Andrew Probyn and Aunty!

LOL Laughing On The Floor Laughing GIF from Lol GIFs

UPDATE

Time for the Streisand Effect to kick in......

https://youtu.be/ShUQtxp7PN0

Australian Taxation Commisioner discreetly warns staff to keep their mouth shut when approached by ABC Four Corners reseachers

ABC TV airs “Mongrel bunch of bastards”, the Four Corners/Fairfax investigation into the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) on Monday 8 April 2018 at 8.30pm.

At least one ATO employee appears to have talked with some of the journalists involved in the investigation. His home was recently raided by the Australian Federal Police accompanied by an ATO investigator.

The ATO is not happy and issued this warning to all staff.....

Image via Twitter

"You're an absolute disgrace" Coalition and One Nation senators

In a wild 2min speech, @JacquiLambie attacks One Nation & the govt ("disgusting") and defends the ABC ("our public broadcaster"). #auspol pic.twitter.com/mCBHjN8Juk

— Luke Henriques-Gomes (@lukehgomes) September 13, 2017

Independent Senator for Tasmania Jacqui Lambie on the floor of the Australian Senate, 14 September 2017.

Senate Hansard,  12 September 2017:

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (13:56): The government wants One Nation support for this package so badly that it has agreed to invite a razor gang into the books of the ABC. And it wants Nick Xenophon's support for the package so badly that it has agreed not to embarrass him into being forced to vote in support of One Nation's proposal. But make no mistake, voting for this bill means voting for One Nation's deal. I know that, One Nation knows that and you can bet your last dollar that Nick Xenophon and his team know that, too. As for what the details are, we still don't know. The government won't tell us and they won't tell us. All we know is that it commits the government to review the ABC and ask if it is reducing the profitability of its commercial rivals. Guess what? The job of the ABC isn't to make money for its commercial rivals. Its job is to guarantee all Australians have access to news, programming and information that affects their lives, no matter where they live or how wealthy they are. The deal the government has made isn't designed to improve the ABC; it is designed to defund it. It's a deal to set up a rigged kangaroo court that is determined to find the ABC guilty and lay the groundwork for slashing the budget of the most trusted news source in the country—or, as I like to refer to it, the eighth great wonder of the world. That is the deal that is before us. That is the vote we are taking—to defend the ABC or to defund it. No amount of tax breaks or inquiries into tech giants can change that. As the old saying goes, if you don't know all the details of the deal, don't vote for it. If you knew all the details of the deal, you probably wouldn't vote for it anyway. A vote in favour of this package is a vote in favour of all the strings that come attached to it. The government could have opted to put the full details of the deal in the legislation, but it decided not to because it is embarrassed by what it has agreed to. And if something is so embarrassing that not even this government would be willing to put its name to it, then it says something about all those who are voting to support it. No matter what else is said, no matter who says it, there's only one thing you need to remember: if you are proud of something, you don't hide it. The deal that has been made between One Nation and the Turnbull government doesn't go ahead unless this vote passes. What we're doing by voting for this media reform package is actually voting for a dirty deal, because the government decided to link the two. We are voting for something on paper and another thing altogether in practice. We're choosing whether to defend the ABC or to defund it. I will not endorse this deal. I am willing to vote to help the commercial players by doing away with outdated media ownership regulations but I refuse to vote for a package that hurts journalism in rural and regional Australia. The bill before us is only half the deal. The other half will not be put to the vote. This is the vote—for the visible half and for the invisible other. It is the only opportunity we will have to oppose the dirty deal the government has made to let loose the razor gangs on the budget of the ABC for the crime of doing exactly what the public needs a public broadcaster to do. I won't be supporting this bill and I am disappointed that I can't. I'm disappointed that I can't support this bill, because I support what it's trying to achieve in principle. The media landscape is changing fast and— The PRESIDENT: Thank you, Senator Lambie. You are in continuation. It being 2pm, we move to question without notice.

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (18:27): The media landscape is changing fast. The industry is changing and the industry's regulation needs changing too. It's ridiculous to say that the only way to defend a struggling industry is to defend the regulation that's preventing it from defending itself against new and enormous threats. But concerns around the potential loss of media diversity as a result of the changes posed are real and valid. It is important that any deal to change regulation also protects media diversity in the process. Nobody wants any one media baron to have excessive power over the political landscape, and the best way to address concerns about private media ownership is to invest in publicly owned media. The government, with courage, would put whatever it's proposing to a vote. That's not what it has agreed to. Instead, reports suggest that the government has made some sneaky handshake deal in a back room somewhere to undermine the operations of the ABC, and it has gone behind the back of the Senate to do it. I won't be supporting this bill, and I'm disappointed that I can't. I'm disappointed that I can't support this bill because I support in principle what it's trying to achieve, but I will not be a part of taking a pitchfork to the ABC.

While I was away........

After a prolonged absence from blogging due to illness, here is a little catchup from the period July to December 2015.

* NSW Premier and Liberal MP for Manly Mike Baird puts "lipstick on a pig" by calling for an increase in the Goods & Service Tax (GST) to 15 per cent. 

* The community consultation dialogue between ratepayers and Clarence Valley Council over proposed consecutive rate rises every year for the next five years remained as colourful as ever:

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* One of Australia’s most influential women, former Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin announced she will be standing against sitting Nationals MP Kevin Hogan at the 2016 federal election. [Echo Netdaily, 23 September 2015]

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* Clarence Valley Council changed its logo to:

And not everyone was happy.               

        _______________

* Coal seam gas company Metgasco Limited finally bowed to people power and walked away from its exploration leases on the NSW North Coast with a state government compensation cheque totaling $25 million in its back pocket:

http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20151204/pdf/433l1v4zvxvk8v.pdf

http://search.asx.com.au/s/search.html?query=mel&collection=asx-meta&profile=web

_______________

* The NSW Nationals used Twitter to take credit for Metgasco’s capitulation – which saw a predictable response:

_______________

* The strength of NSW gun laws was demonstrated to a retiree living on Palmer's Island in the Clarence Valley:

Full decision at https://www.caselaw.nsw.gov.au/decision/567386b1e4b05f2c4f04a307.

_______________

* On 17 December 2015 The Daily Examiner published an article titled The 600 major companies that paid less tax than you, but neglected to tell its readers that it was owned by one of these very same companies, APN NEWS & MEDIA  LTD, which had an income of $310.3 million in the 2013-14 financial year.  A total of $21.2 million of this was considered taxable income, yet this company had no tax payable listed for that financial year.

http://data.gov.au/dataset/c2524c87-cea4-4636-acac-599a82048a26/resource/237d7ede-3a63-4b9b-9434-2f79b9d70ce8/download/2013-14-Corporate-Report-of-Entity-Tax-Information.xlsx

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* That one-time darling of the Liberal-Nationals federal government, Kathy Jackson, got her comeuppance:

The disgraced union leader declared bankruptcy in June, on the opening day of HSU Federal Court proceedings which resulted in her being ordered to pay $1.4m to the union as compensation for up to $2.5m misappropriated from members while she was its national secretary between 2008 and February this year.

But her discharge from bankruptcy will only remain in place for three years, meaning the HSU may be able to continue to recoup some of the money she owes after that time.

On Tuesday, Ms Jackson's bill increased by $997,349, when judge Richard Tracey ordered she pay $554,215.67 in interest, $356,500 in legal costs and $86,633.81 in appeal costs.

Brisbane-based commercial barrister Gavin Handran, listed in the most recent Doyles Guide as one of Australia's leading insolvency and reconstruction junior counsels, said Ms Jackson solicited bankruptcy too early.

"The order for costs, circa $350,000, made by Justice Tracey on 21 December is not a debt provable in her bankruptcy even though it relates to a damages award made before bankruptcy," Mr Handran said. "The HSU may accordingly enforce that order against her, perhaps resulting in her again becoming bankrupt or surrendering any assets she acquires in the interim, after her current bankruptcy ends." Mr Handran said the law applied differently to interest and costs. "She might be safe with the interest," he said.

"I suspect what Kathy Jackson did, like so many in her troubled circumstances, was that she ran off on first day and filed for bankruptcy. That was premature.

"It's particularly important for the HSU workers to understand that she's not out of the woods. The sword still hangs over her head." "Not only does she face the real prospect of re-entering bankruptcy after she emerges from this period, but there's also the possibility that the HSU, depending on a cost-benefit analysis, may examine her under oath in the Federal Court, with the assistance of the bankruptcy trustee, to ascertain whether she's transferred any assets to a third party or (her partner, Michael) Lawler." HSU national secretary Chris Brown said the union was "alive to the possibility" of Ms Jackson facing a second round of bankruptcy, or interrogation over the transfer of assets. The union was still determining how it would approach the matter. [The Australian, 24 December 2015, p.5]

                                                                 _______________

* NSW Coalition Premier Mike Baird thought his ability to waste $500,000 of taxpayers' money deserved a tweet or two:

Go to http://www.stonersloth.com.au/ to see the Australian version of Reefer Madness that Baird signed off on.

_______________

There were 222 industrial disputes in Australia during the year ended September 2015, involving 78,000 individuals in a workforce of est. 11.7 million people. The majority of these ‘strikes’ appear to have lasted 2 days or less.

This low level of disputes does not please former prime minister Tony Abbott who, living in a time long past, argued in December 2015 for a tougher approach to breaking up illegal union pickets, saying police forces “around our country” had to be prepared to “uphold the law and not simply keep the peace … A lot of police forces have been traditionally reluctant to break picket lines where picket lines have been preventing people from going about their ordinary lawful business”.

                                                                  _______________

* Royal Commissioner Dyson Heydon delivered his discredited final report on union governance and corruption to the Australian Governor-General on 28 December. The full report can be found at: https://www.tradeunionroyalcommission.gov.au/reports/Pages/default.aspx.

It came as no surprise that Dyson Mr.Apprehended Bias 2015 Heydon decided that Kathy Jackson was really a hero who just happened to embezzle over $1.4 million dollars:

_______________

* The independent Q&A Review Final Report released in December 2015 appears to have discovered that this ABC program is skewed in favour of the government of the day:

Conservative flying monkeys dropped from Australian skies in shock.

_______________

* WorkChoices Mark 2 appears to be forming on the horizon ahead of this year’s federal election:

http://www.afr.com/news/politics/scott-morrison-flags-taking-industrial-relations-reform-to-next-election-20151215-gloika

Former workplace relations minister Eric Abetz says the Fair Work Commission cannot ignore calls to reduce Sunday penalty rates, if as expected the Productivity Commission recommends the move on Monday.

Senator Abetz was the workplace relations minister until the Liberal leadership change and cabinet reshuffle in September.

Speaking ahead of the Productivity Commission's release of its final report into the industrial relations system, he told Fairfax Media the review must be respected by the Fair Work Commission which sets wages and entitlements. [The Sydney Morning Herald, 21 December 2015]

The recommendations — laid out in the commission's final report into workplace relations released on Monday — would affect workers in the entertainment, hospitality and retail industries, if adopted.

The commission did not recommend any changes to overtime penalty rates, night penalty rates or shift loadings, nor changes to rates for nurses, teachers or emergency services workers.

"Penalty rates have a legitimate role in compensating employees for working long hours or at asocial times," it stated.

"However, Sunday penalty rates for hospitality, entertainment, retailing, restaurants and cafes are inconsistent across similar work, anachronistic in the context of changing consumer preferences, and frustrate the job aspirations of the unemployed and those who are only available for work on Sunday.

"Rates should be aligned with those on Saturday, creating a weekend rate for each of the relevant industries."

Announcing the report's findings, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the Government would examine the recommendations and, if the case for sensible and fair changes to workplace relations were outlined, they would be taken to the next election. [ABC News, 21 December 2015]

ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja said the Coalition should argue for a cut in Sunday penalty rates at next year's election.

"The Productivity Commission has done some really important work here," Senator Seselja he said.

"I think that we should be looking to put some policies to the next election which make incremental reforms in this area that go down the path the Productivity Commission is recommending.

"In the hospitality industry, in particular, that's where I hear the most from business owners, that's where I think the reforms should be occurring, and I think that's the sort of thing that we could develop a policy to take to an election." [ABC News, 21 December  2015]

Pharmacists in Australia have voted to launch industrial action for the first time, starting Christmas Eve, as a national pharmacy chain moves to slash penalty rates. It comes amid tense debate over a proposed Australia-wide rollback of Sunday penalty rates for workers in hospitality, retail and entertainment jobs, following an inquiry by the Productivity Commission. Pharmacists employed at dozens of National Pharmacies sites across Victoria and South Australia will now become the first in their profession to take action against an employer, as anger rises over threats to their penalty rates. From Thursday, pharmacists will embark on a campaign against National Pharmacies, authorising strikes of up to 24 hours that could force the temporary closure of some sites if the deadlock continues. The campaign this week will begin with pharmacists refusing to perform a range of work duties. National Pharmacies is attempting to cut pharmacists' penalty rates by as much as 50 per cent for certain hours on Saturday shifts. Double-time Sunday rates would remain in place. The company also wants to lower overtime pay, freeze the wages of existing pharmacists and introduce a two-tiered pay scheme, according to the union. In a statement, National Pharmacies said the pressures of a competitive and uncertain marketplace had forced a need to align with the rest of the industry. [The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 December 2015, p.4]

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* It became obvious that local thoughts had begun to turn to the 2016 election of councillors:

   

                                                             
Excerpts from Clarence Valley Rate Payers, Residents and Business Owners Facebook page - featuring Deputy Mayor Cr. Craig Howe & the artwork of a ratepayer.

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With the national terrorism threat level still fixed as "PROBABLE" by the Turnbull Government, DIBP and presumably many in Border Farce took an eleven day Chrissie holiday:

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On 29 December The Guardian reported that the Turnbull ministry is three and a half months old and already there are two casualties. One looks fairly straightforward. The other, not so. In both cases, Malcolm Turnbull is well rid of them under the circumstances….

Jamie Briggs resigned after he “interacted” with a female public servant in an “informal manner” in a late night bar on an overseas trip. She complained he had acted inappropriately…..

The other casualty was Mal Brough, the former special minister of state. This is more opaque and the stink has a potential to linger given Brough has promised only to step aside, not resign…..

Background on Mal Brough “stink” by barrister Ross Bowler.

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Right-wing attacks on the ABC continue. This time Gerard Henderson's tilt at Media Watch & Professor Chapman backfires spectacularly

Weighed under by budget cuts and loss of an international platform the Australian Broadcasting Commission, everybody's Aunty, must wonder when Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's flying monkeys will cease their attacks on its integrity.

Fortunately some of those who become collateral damage in the war on public broadcasting bite back publicly, as did Simon Fenton Chapman AO BA(Hons) (UNSW), PhD (USyd), FASSA, HonFFPH (UK).

Professor Chapman in Crikey on 23 February 2015:

Over the weekend and this morning, The Australian's Gerard Henderson and Simon King spent a lot of ink explaining to readers that I have "as much authority to discuss health affairs as I [Henderson] do. Namely, Zip."

Their readers needed to be told this because last week Media Watch tipped a very rancorous bucket over The Australian's reportage of a "study" from Victoria by acoustic engineer Steven Cooper that involved just three households of altogether six long-time complainants about the local wind farm. There was no control group. Here and here are critiques of the many manifest inadequacies of his report.

I was one of four people quoted by Media Watch in the program, and this got our Gerard very excited. He wrote to the program:

"Media Watch's decision to associate Professor Chapman with the words 'expert' and 'scientific' gave a clear impression that he is qualified to assess scientific research. However, Paul Barry neglected to advise Media Watch viewers that Simon Chapman had no scientific or engineering or medical qualifications. He has a BA (Hons) from the University of New South Wales and a Ph.D. from Sydney University. Dr Chapman's Ph.D. is in Sociology. In other words, Simon Chapman has no qualifications to assess the research of the acoustic engineer Steven Cooper … Media Watch misled its viewers last Monday by implying that Professor Simon Chapman is an 'expert' who is 'scientifically' qualified to assess the heath effect on humans of wind farms. The fact is that Simon Chapman has no formal qualifications in science or medicine or engineering."

This morning Simon King went one better with his discovery that ""He does not have a PhD in Medicine". In fact, I do have a PhD in medicine. Here's a list of 14 of us who graduated in 1986 with … wait for it … a "PhD in medicine", as King could have read if he'd checked my CV (line 1, page 3) or asked me.

I did my PhD in the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine (that M word again). The duffers on the Order of Australia committee also seem to know that I contribute to health and medical research. My citation reads "for distinguished service to medical research as an academic and author".

King and Henderson appear to know nothing about the nature of contemporary expertise and how nearly all complex problems in health and medicine today involve researchers from different disciplines working together. In my school in the faculty of medicine there are staff who are biostatisticians, historians, psychologists, ethicists, economists, epidemiologists, and social scientists. Only some — probably a minority — have undergraduate degrees in medicine. Henderson's primitive understanding of expertise begins and ends with the possession of an undergraduate degree…..

Steven Cooper, whose CV has no mention of any PhD or undergraduate degree in medicine, until recently referred to himself as "Dr Cooper" on his home page. I look forward to The Australian covering this…..

Read the rest of the article here.

Just how big is the ABC's slice of the federal budget pie?

Business Spectator 20 November 2014:

When members of the Abbott Government talk about a need to rein in Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) spending, they rely on graphs like the one above (which displays funding in terms of millions of dollars) in order to scare voters about current and future public broadcasting sustainability.

Here is just a small visual reminder to the Abbott Government of how little, in the grand scheme of things, ABC television, radio and digital platforms actually cost.

A relatively small 0.271% of the total federal budget according to BudgetAus:

How many Walkley Awards did the Our ABC win this year? That many!

Despite a sustained political and economic assault by the Abbott Government and a anti-public broadcasting campaign by Rupert Murdoch's media, the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) had thirty finalists in the 2014 Walkley Awards.

Twelve ABC journalists won on the night in the thirty-four award categories – some coming first in more than one category.

ABC News 5 December 2014:

The ABC's Deb Masters and Mario Christodoulou and Fairfax Media's Adele Ferguson have jointly won Australian journalism's highest award, the Gold Walkley, for a Four Corners investigation of the Commonwealth Bank….

A joint ABC News and Guardian investigation which angered Prime Minister Tony Abbott and upset relations with Indonesia was named the Scoop of the Year.

Reporters Michael Brissenden, Ewan MacAskill and Lenore Taylor were presented the award for their story revealing that Australia's spy networks were targeting Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's personal mobile phone…..

Australian Story's Belinda Hawkins took out the category for Social Equity Journalism with her story on the search by donor-conceived children for their biological fathers.

Middle East correspondent Hayden Cooper was honoured for his coverage of the Peter Greste trial, winning the Walkley for Radio News and Current Affairs reporting.

Matt Brown, Hayden Cooper, Aaron Hollett, Stuart Watt, Michael Carey and the ABC news teams won Best Coverage of a Major News Event or Issue, with their reporting on the Gaza conflict.

Matt Brown and Mark Solomons won the Walkley for TV/AV Reporting for three exclusives about Australian jihadists in Syria.

Radio National's Sarah Dingle won the Radio/Audio Documentary award for her investigation into the Salvation Army's sex abuse cover-up.

ABC News and Foreign Correspondent cameraman Wayne McAllister was honoured for his work in Thailand, the South China Sea and Ukraine.

Four Corners, ABC TV and The Australian shared the Investigative Journalism award for their reports into the treatment of children caught up in conflict in the West Bank.

7.30's Nick McKenzie, Richard Baker and Sam Clark won the TV/AV Daily Current Affairs award for their investigation of corruption, kickbacks, rackets and organised crime within the building industry and the CFMEU.

A joint ABC TV/Mint Pictures and Identity Films won the Documentary award for investigations into child abuse at a Orthodox Jewish boys' school in Melbourne.

Well done, Our ABC!

Our ABC speaks out

Present Challenges, Future Audiences

13TH OCTOBER 2014

Address by Mark Scott
University of Melbourne
Monday 13 October 2014

Last Friday night, I had the honour of hosting a ceremony as part of the ABC’s Mental As week. I am sure you’re aware of Mental As and our involvement with it, as it illustrates perfectly the role of the ABC—engaging the community in an issue of national importance, using its storytelling expertise and cross-platform prowess to explain a complex, contemporary issue. No other broadcaster in this country could even attempt such an ambitious exercise.

Public broadcasting has always aspired to inform, to educate and to entertain. I couldn’t be prouder of how we fulfilled that role last week, giving Australians a chance to talk, to seek and to give, creating a platform for a national conversation around mental health. It was the work of a digital age ABC, the most comprehensive cross-platform content and marketing initiative we have ever undertaken.

Mental As will have had an impact on millions of Australians who watched, listened and engaged online—and on the nation itself.

That has always been the ABC’s way. Part of Australian life, part of the lives of millions of Australians each week. Something that belongs to all Australians, everywhere.

Our work on Mental As coincided with campaigns around the country over the future of Lateline and other programs. The public response to Mental As and the Save Lateline petitions show yet again the degree of passion the public, the owners of the ABC have for the public broadcaster.

The ABC Board acts as trustee for the Australian people who own the ABC. The Board is independent and accountable to Parliament for the decisions it makes on how to spend the funds allocated to the public broadcaster, for decisions about how best to fulfill the Charter as set out in the ABC Act.

Why is the ABC so widely appreciated by the public in whose interests the Board acts? It’s a national asset, long loved and nurtured down through the generations. For the vast majority of Australians, it’s our most trusted source of news. It’s integral to the lives of millions, with over 70% of Australians over 18 using the ABC each week—not to mention the nation’s pre-schoolers for whom bedtime is signalled by Giggle and Hoot.

For all these reasons, when you talk about the prospects of the ABC being changed, and changed significantly, it would be negligent not to talk about the challenges the ABC is facing right now.

If you love and care for the ABC, if you support and want it to remain strong, robust and relevant within Australian life—and if you read the headlines—then you know these are uncertain times for the ABC.

In the face of this uncertainty, the ABC Board and its management team remain resolved to secure the ABC’s future in the digital age. For the ABC to be an indispensible element in the lives of millions of Australians and the life of the nation. For it, as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, to be a place where despite all the international content freely flowing within our media streams, Australians know they will find Australian stories and a national conversation.

Convergence, technological change and new competition continue to create uncertainty everywhere in the media sector.

The ABC also contends with an additional uncertainty, dependent upon funding decisions that are still to be made—or at least revealed—by the Government.

Everyone except the cynics would be a little surprised to find the ABC facing this uncertainty.

For decades now, the ABC has been funded through a bipartisan triennial funding arrangement, where three years funding has been committed by the Government of the day. This enabled the ABC to undertake multi-year contracts and plan with some certainty, most importantly in program production areas, with a secure income stream.

That security is particularly important to the ABC in that, unlike other media organisations, we effectively have no other way of raising revenue.

We’re now in the middle of the most recent triennial funding agreement, made in May 2013. This agreement still has a year and a half to run, and it’s very rare indeed for the ABC’s budget to be cut in the middle of a triennial funding agreement.

I don’t need to remind you of the very clear, public and oft-repeated commitment made by Mr Abbott before the election, and after the election, inside Parliament and outside Parliament. He guaranteed that, in its first term of office, the Government would maintain the ABC’s budget.

These are facts that I can report—I’m not going to provide further commentary.

The reality is the ABC’s budget has already been cut this year. And more cuts are on the way.

Earlier in the year, I’d imagined that by the time I’d be speaking to you here at the University of Melbourne, we’d know the future funding position for the ABC.

Not so.

We are still not sure precisely how much will be cut. We are still not sure precisely when the cuts will become payable. And decisions around size and timing could, naturally, have a material impact on ABC audiences.

I want to pay tribute to our staff. As I have said to them, the very best thing they can do during this period of uncertainty is to do their very best work. And they’ve done it, continuing to be completely professional, dedicating themselves to bringing Australian stories and conversations to Australians everywhere regardless of the climate of uncertainty in which they’ve had to work.

Some commentators have suggested the ABC should stop grandstanding and get on with belt-tightening. The reality is the ABC has already been belt-tightening, and taken steps to deal with what amounts to a $120 million funding cut over four years.

In the May budget, the Government introduced the somewhat novel concept of a “down payment”. This “down payment” came in the form of an extraction of funds from our triennial funding settlement—a 1% cut to base funding and the termination of the Australia Network contract, which still had over 9 years to run.

ABC International has been forced to downsize and more than 80 people have left the ABC as a result—many great talents are now lost to us, over a thousand years of experience has gone out the door.

The challenge was not helped at all by the fact that compensation provided by DFAT for terminating the contract fell short—by more than $5 million—of the actual costs of termination.

We have also taken steps to deal with the first tranche of the $40 million base funding cut. No one’s procrastinating.

Now, “down payments” normally provide some notion of rights for the payee about when and how the final payment will be made.

But not so in this case.

The final strategy for dealing with the funding cuts will have to be determined by the Board and Executive once the size of the cut and the repayment timing is known. Obviously both will have a significant effect on the decisions that must be made.

And since rumour loves a vacuum, while we’ve been waiting for the Government to reveal just how much more they want back from the ABC, some of the ABC’s critics have taken this opportunity to step up and offer us helpful guidance on where cuts must be made, while ABC supporters have been telling us where they must not be made.

We’re hopeful that this will, finally, be resolved soon.

In the meantime, we continue to develop a range of options to deal with what we do know, and contingency plans to deal with what we don’t.

And while I’m not able to deal with specifics tonight, I do want show you how we’re thinking through the considerable challenge.

Let’s begin with efficiency.

Read the rest here.

The 73 million reasons why the Abbott Government is intent on crushing public broadcasting in Australia

American media mogul Rupert Murdoch and News Corp made no secret of the fact that they supported the Liberal-National Coalition gaining federal government and backed Tony Abbott's bid for prime ministership in the September 2013 Australian federal election.

This support was enthusiastically and sometimes crudely expressed:

www.reddit.com

In his turn Tony Abbott has kept his close links with News Corp since he became prime minister: for example attempting to change the racial discrimination act after a News Corp journalist was found to have breached this act; briefing Rupert Murdoch personally before informing his cabinet of a major policy initiative; attending The Daily Telegraph post-budget party; and  informing The Daily Telegraph before his parliamentary colleagues of changes to data retention policy.

In the Abbott Government's first budget this 'alliance' with Rupert Murdoch continued – funding cuts and loss of a media platform befell public broadcasting which co-incidentally happens to be a major player on the Australian media scene:

The full extent of the ABC threat to News Corp isn't clear until you closely examine their competing activities.

First there's television, and the years-long saga of the ABC's Asia Pacific service, a national vanity project costing tens of millions a year, which the Howard government begged Jonathan Shier to take on in 2001. After the ABC began producing a reasonable, if low-cost, service, News coveted it for Sky News (of which News Corp has an interest via its holding in one-third owner BSkyB) to improve its international clout at taxpayer expense and tried twice, in 2005 and 2010, to win it, getting knocked back both times, although for very different reasons the second time around.

Then there's ABC News 24, a direct rival to Sky News itself and to News Corp's half-owned Foxtel, which carries Sky News. News 24 reaches about 14% of metropolitan audiences a week, far ahead of Sky News.

And free-to-air: Lachlan Murdoch's Ten Network has been regularly losing its third spot in the evening television ratings to the ABC. The ABC pointed out yesterday that it had lifted its prime-time share to a 14.6 share, up 1 percentage point from 2012 and the best performance of any free-to-air network this year. Ten's share fell and in fact spent all of 2013 behind the ABC, consigning it to fourth in metro markets, while its regional performance was even worse. ABC management has simply outclassed Lachlan's conga line of executives. The former head of ABC TV, Kim Dalton, was behind the suite of programs that enabled the ABC to have programs that viewers wanted to watch when Ten imploded in August of 2012, and continued to slide this year. Lachlan Murdoch has removed two CEOs and is now on his third in three years. Ten's problems are as much his problems as those of the poor decision making by former management.

Lachlan Murdoch also slashed and burnt the previous Ten management's carefully developed news and current affairs presence, at a time when the ABC was strengthening its position as the most trusted source of news for Australians across radio and television, far ahead of commercial broadcasters and newspapers — with News Corp's increasingly biased mastheads bringing up the rear as Australia's least-trusted newspapers.

"Plainly there are good leaks involving government secrets, which embarrass the ALP, and bad leaks, which make life difficult for the Coalition."

The ABC's online iView service is also a threat. It's now the most popular TV replay source online, and it competes directly, and for free, with Foxtel.

ABC Radio also competes directly with Lachlan's DMG radio stations in each state capital; Nova FM only beats the ABC's metropolitan local stations in Brisbane and Perth. And ABC Radio is planning a development that will not be greeted warmly by News or Ten or DMG Australia. Fairfax won't be happy either. In an email to staff two weeks ago, ABC Radio head Kate Dundas revealed that, among a long list of changes and new ideas, were state-based online news editions planned for 2014, a new e-mag for Radio National, a huge revamp of the Triple J Dig multiplatform, and a second online music stream for Classic FM.

Probably the most important will be the first version of the ABC audio player — the audio equivalent of iView. Podcasts for programs such as Conversations (which attracts hundreds of thousands of listeners a month) and RN programs will move to this new player site. ABC Radio Multiplatform also has a lot planned for 2014, with mobile versions of key sites like ABC Rural, Dig Music and ABC Local news sites.

The suspicion arises that Tony Abbott will increase pressure on the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) whilst he has the power to do so. 

Given that on 20 August 2014 Crikey.com.au revealed a further motive for this pressure - the parlous state of News Corp in Australia:

Combined with the sharp earnings drop already reported in 2013-14, and with circulation and advertising revenues continuing to decline, the accounts suggest News Corp's Australian newspapers, including the national, metro and regional publications, will struggle to break even this financial year.

The confidential operating accounts for News Corp Australia have never been seen by investors and provide a detailed picture of a print business in rapid decline, with swingeing cost-cuts, cover price increases, new digital subscriptions and digital advertising failing to make up for the loss of revenues from advertising and circulation……

The accounts were produced last year just as Murdoch spun off his troubled print media assets worldwide from the profitable Fox film and cable television empire in the United States, in the wake of the UK phone-hacking scandal.

News Corp was spun out on June 28, 2013, from the renamed 21st Century Fox, and houses mastheads including The Wall Street Journal and New York Post in the US, the Times and Sun in the UK, News' Australian newspapers, plus book publisher Harper Collins, Foxtel and Fox Sports in Australia, and a 62% stake in ASX-listed REA Group, which operates the successful realestate.com.au website

Listed on the NASDAQ and the ASX, News Corporation, valued at $11 billion, goes to considerable lengths to avoid breaking revenue or earnings down by country or masthead, lumping its worldwide newspaper operations plus other businesses together into the "news and information" segment, which accounts for 71% of the group's total revenue, and only offering finer detail selectively.

Crikey can reveal that, amid a forest of negative brackets, revenue from News Corp's Australian newspapers fell 14% to $1.9 billion in 2012-13, with circulation revenue dropping 5% and advertising revenue falling 18%, while operating income fell 67% to $94 million.

Within the division, The Australian stands out as the worst performer: revenues dropped 20% from $135 million to 108 million in 2012-13, while operating income fell 41% from a loss of $19 million to a loss of $27 million. After depreciation, the masthead's operating loss fell to $30 million.

The profit drop in newspapers was only partly offset by growth in other operations like REA Group and Fox Sports, with total operating income falling 38% to $221 million. After income from investments including Foxtel, the group recorded a total profit before interest or tax of $367 million, down 28%.....

the heavy falls in print have continued if not accelerated through 2013-14. This is confirmed in News Corp's most recent quarterly earnings update and annual report, showing the Australian newspapers are dragging on recovering newspaper operations in the US and UK, as well as divisions reporting profit growth, such as book publishing.

News reported that earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation from Australian newspapers fell by US $67 million in 2013-14, or $73 million — which by Crikey's estimate represents roughly an 80% fall on the previous year, nearly wiping out the division's entire operating income. The division dragged heavily on the news and information segment, which reported a 16% drop in EBITDA in 2013-14.

The operating accounts show Melbourne's Herald Sun was the mainstay of News Corp in Australia, with the weekday paper generating revenues of $250 million in 2012-13, down 13.5% on the year before, and operating income of $35 million, down 41%. Revenue for the Sunday edition fell 17% to $75 million, while operating income fell 31% to $21 million.

Of the major tabloids the weekday edition of News' monopoly masthead in Brisbane, The Courier-Mail, suffered the steepest falls, with revenue dropping 18% to $158 million while operating income fell 68% to just $17 million. The Sunday Mail revenues fell 15% to $71 million and operating income fell 33% to $20 million.

The weekday edition of Sydney's Daily Telegraph was another weak performer, with the lowest profit margins at 5%, with revenue dropping 14% to $160 million while operating income fell 65% to just $8 million. The Sunday Telegraph revenues fell 15% to $94 million and operating income fell 53% to $7 million.

At that level Adelaide's Advertiser's weekday editions alone made a much stronger contribution than the Tele in 2012-13, generating revenues of $138 million (down 15%) and operating income of $22 million (down 47%) — without counting the Sunday Mail.

The financial performance of the newspapers has only worsened. In its latest accounts News Corp revealed that overall revenue from the Australian newspapers had fallen by another 18% or US $359 million in 2013-14, compared with the previous year, made up of US $314 million decline in advertising revenue and a US $45 million decline in circulation revenue. Of that, News said US $199 million — a bit over half — reflected the impact of a weaker Australian dollar versus the greenback, which pointed to an 8% decline in revenue in local currency to below $1.8 billion. [my red bolding]

Crikey.com.au 21 August 2014:

Adding the two divisions, to make the comparison easier, circulation revenue at Fairfax grew 13% to $327 million in 2012-13, and another 1% to $331 million in 2013-14. Ad revenue fell 18% in 2012-13 to $1,022 million, and another 15% to $869 million the year after. Total revenue fell 11% to $1,507 million in 2012-13, and another 12 % to $1,333 million in 2013-14. There was a moderate improvement in profitability, however, with EBITDA rising 3% to $269 million in 2012-13 and 1% to $273 million in 2013-14.

In 2012-13, Fairfax's Metro Media division recorded a 17% increase in circulation revenue to $222 million. Advertising revenue fell 21% to $634 million. Total revenue fell 12% to $996 million. In the Regional Media division, circulation revenue fell 4% to $98 million, ad revenue fell 13% to $388 million, and total revenue fell 10% to $511 million. EBITDA at the Metros fell 26% to $76 million and in Regional it fell 16% to $133 million.

In 2013-14, ignoring the restructure of Regional Media into Australian Community Media, the corresponding figures were as follows: Metro Media circulation revenue grew 9% to $228 million while ad revenue fell 14% to $460 million and total revenue fell 9% to $803 million; Community Media circulation revenue fell 7% to $103 million while ad revenue fell 16% to $409 million and total revenue fell 15% to $530 million. On the EBITDA line, the Metros reported a 41% increase to $121 million while Community Media fell 17% to $152 million.

In terms of percentage growth and/or declines, from year to year, the comparison shows Fairfax outperforming the News Corp papers on most measures, counting both revenues and earnings. [my red bolding]

Financial Review 22 August 2014:

The Blue Book showed the average cost of employees at The Australian’s print operations was $178,256. That included associated costs and actual salary, but that still seemed higher than most of the ABC journalists the paper had slammed as overpaid. By comparison, the average cost of employees for the Daily Telegraph was $141,214. The toilers at the Herald Sun made do with $131,944, $125,135 for The Courier Mail, and $90,990 for smaller titles like The Geelong Advertiser. [my red bolding]