Pete Lewis is a bit of a legend in rural Australia.  He joined the ABC in 1980, and was for years the ABC’s Brisbane-based rural reporter.  He was EP of Landline for five years, and New Zealand correspondent for two.  

Brisbane-based Pete left the ABC a few years back, and is now the director of media consultancy ‘Way with Words’, and President of the Australian Council of Agricultural Journalists   Appropriately, his Twitter handle is @endofthebitumen. 

Pete’s election campaign message for ABC Alumni echoes the words of former MD Mark Scott: “The further you get from Ultimo, the closer you get to the beating heart of the ABC.” 

“I reckon there’s a bit of truth to that observation”, comments Pete. So do we.

Watch for yourself, and pass it on.  The link to the YouTube version is https://youtu.be/Z9ksHLEs6b8

Or follow @abcalumni on Twitter, or ABC Alumni on Facebook where you’ll find a sub-titled version that can be retweeted with no bother.

Thanks and enjoy.

Australian viewers love Australian stories. The ABC has a proud record of broadcasting the finest Australian drama. But with shrinking funding, the number of hours of new Australian drama on the ABC has reduced by more than 60% since the 1980s. Anne Maria Nicholson shows why you should Vote 1 ABC.

In trying to defend the ABC as an institutional pillar of a fearless free media in Australia’s robust democracy, first, we have to confront paranoia.