Since 2014, when the ABC stopped broadcasting state-based weekly current affairs, there’s been no consistent platform on ABC TV for holding state governments to account – even during the pandemic, when they wielded almost unprecedented power over our lives.
As for local government, traditionally that was the job of local newspapers. But too many of them have closed, and the few local journalists who survive are starved of time and resources.
For the ABC to restore its coverage of state affairs, and increase its scrutiny of local government, would need a lot more funding than it currently gets.
But as Virginia Haussegger, who was one the ABC’s most experienced and respected news and current affairs presenters, points out in our latest campaign video, that’s what’s needed, urgently.