The much anticipated third instalment in the history of the ABC- Margaret Simon’s Going Digital- is now available. Covering the years from 2006, where Ken Inglis's last volume finished, Simons charts the decade to 2016.   ABC Alumni member Alan Sunderland was there at the time and offers his thoughts on a compelling read.

These are dangerous waters.

 Margaret Simons’ contribution to the written history of the ABC (Going Digital - The Transformation of the ABC, LaTrobe University Press ) is effectively the third volume in the long and contested history of our major public broadcaster.

The first, by historian Ken Inglis, covered the period from its birth in 1932 to the election of the Hawke Government in 1983, and the transformation of the ABC from a Commission to a Corporation. It was written with the full cooperation of the ABC and free access to the archives, but ended with Ken Inglis being snubbed at the launch and threatened with a defamation writ by the legendary Sir Charles Moses, who spent 30 years as General Manager.

Ken’s second volume had no such access and no such assistance, and covered the transformative leadership of David Hill and the controversial chaos of Jonathan Shier. Despite the many challenges, scandals and battles of those days, the main criticism of this second unfettered volume was that it was perhaps a little reluctant to draw conclusions, take sides or identify the innocent and the guilty. Everyone wants to see the villains named and shamed, although everyone has a different view on who they are. 

Against that background, we now have a new author and a new book, which essentially covers the ten year reign of Mark Scott as Managing Director. By any measure, this was indeed a transformative period for the ABC, as it went from one and a half television channels and a handful of radio stations to four channels, multiple radio streams, one of the busiest online news sites in the country, masses of streaming and on-demand video and audio content and a 24 hour news channel. All done for significantly less money in real terms. 

For most of its preparation, Simons worked with no cooperation and no access from the ABC, relying instead on more than seventy interviews, substantial ‘leaks’ of information and documents, and then finally some official records once the current ABC management took over.

Depending on whether you are a supporter or enemy of public broadcasting, the book could just as easily have been called Going Woke or Going Broke as Going Digital. The truth is that the ABC in the 21st century has become a major battleground in the culture wars, and it is impossible to track its history without confronting these wars. So how does Margaret Simons fare as a war correspondent? 

The first thing to say is that she pulls no punches and avoids no controversies. The book tackles head on the many political battles and scandals embroiling the ABC, from punitive budget cuts and eviscerating Senate Estimates showdowns, to claims of unAustralian behaviour, treachery and systemic bias. Internal wrangles between divisions are called out every bit as often as external pressures.  It is all laid out in compelling detail, and while the book makes it clear where the ABC has failed, fallen short or overstepped the mark, the cumulative impact of that detail also makes it clear where the ABC has been vilified and punished for simply doing its job.

Beside the political battles, Simons also explores the semi-permanent tension between the ABC and News Corporation and the battle to be seen as Australia’s premier home of news coverage and the national agenda setter. On that front, Simons makes perhaps her most controversial call in the book when, early on, she declares the ABC the winner. I suspect that’s a call some might take issue with.

But beyond the scandals and the use of the ABC as an ideological football, there are more important issues at stake, and they are central to the book. In the ten years of Mark Scott’s reign the ABC significantly reduced its output of original drama and other television content, and moved predominantly to an outsourcing model where the ABC was a commissioner and screener of content more than a creator and owner. That had, and continues to have, a huge impact on the way Australian stories get told. Most famously, Bluey enjoys big audiences on the ABC, but it delivers comfortably more than one billion dollars a year in revenue for the BBC, which owns the rights the ABC couldn’t afford to take up. That’s the entire budget of the ABC every year, all from one outsourcing decision. 

While ABC TV struggled with the battle between making content in house or commissioning it from the independent sector (the latter largely won, with the loss of hundreds of jobs and severely reduced internal capacity, especially outside Sydney and Melbourne), ABC News struggled with the quality versus quantity dilemma, as it streamlined and simplified its news gathering methods, created a true 24 hour news operation and lost programs like Lateline along the way.

The book also documents the massive changes across radio, the challenge to maintain strong and relevant regional coverage and the devastating collapse in international output that continues to get far less attention than it deserves.

More than anything, though, Going Digital is the story of Mark Scott, the central figure who drove the digital transformation of the ABC during his time as Managing Director. The author clearly had regular access to Scott both before and after taking on the book, and it seems to me she is largely supportive of his role, his achievement and his abilities. Despite that, the book teases out very fairly and very well the views of his critics, the areas where opinion is divided on some of his decisions, and the central question of whether the ABC has transformed far enough and quickly enough to ensure its survival in the crowded and contested media environment we all find ourselves in.

As one of the seventy people consulted during the writing of this history, I think it stands superbly as a chronicle of the ABC, and makes the case well that the health of Australian democracy depends heavily on the health of important institutions like public broadcasting. All the anger, angst, anxiety and achievement that fills its pages is a testament to the passion and commitment that goes into the organisation. I understand a further volume from Simons, dealing with the organisational chaos that followed the Mark Scott, is already in the works. Bring it on.