On 23 April 2024, former ABC National Arts Reporter Anne Maria Nicholson spoke to the Central Coast branch of ABC Friends NSW in Gosford.  This is an edited version of her speech.

Gavin Fang took up his appointment as Editorial Director in January this year.  One of the ABC’s most experienced news executives, he began his ABC career in 2000 in the Perth newsroom.  After a stint as the ABC’s correspondent in Jakarta, he took on a succession of ever-more senior editorial roles in ABC News, ending as Deputy Director of News.  Along the way he had a hand in devising the More Relevant to More Australians News policy, and was ABC News Diversity lead. 

The Editorial Director and his team of editorial advisors are responsible for ensuring that ALL ABC content, screen, audio and online, complies with the ABCs Editorial Polices and Standards.

ABC Alumni board director Quentin Dempster spoke to Gavin Fang for a webinar exclusively for ABC Alumni subscribers on Tuesday 19 March.  This is not a word-for-word transcript but a summary that has been approved by Gavin for wider distribution.

ABC Alumni welcomes the appointment of Kim Williams as the new Chair of the ABC Board.

There are big pictures to paint as we campaign for the ABC in the election. But this video from Richard Dinnen in North Queensland reminds us to zoom in to each and every part of Australia, and the vital role that our ABC plays.

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.

Philippa McDonald highlights the vital work of the ABC in an emergency – fire, flood or other disaster – without extra funding and at a time when the ABC budget continues to shrink.

With the federal election campaign now officially underway, ABC Alumni today launches the first of a series of videos to inform the public of issues critical to the future of the ABC.

Just released, the long-awaited book by academics Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins – Who Needs the ABC? – is a thorough analysis of the ABC over recent decades and an unequivocal defence of the national broadcaster’s vital role in a healthy democracy. The ABC, they say, is now doing more than it ever has, with less funding than it needs and under a barrage of criticism – largely unwarranted. But, they warn, despite recent budget announcements, the future of the ABC is under very real threat from the Coalition government, and this is not a time for complacency. Here’s a review by the Alumni’s Greg Wilesmith.

Book Review

Who Needs the ABC? 

By Matthew Ricketson & Patrick Mullins – Scribe Publications, 2022

In a strongly worded statement, ABC Chair Ita Buttrose AC OBE says a new Senate Inquiry into the ABC’s complaint handling process “appears to be a blatant attempt to usurp the role of the ABC Board and undermine the operational independence of the ABC”.

For almost 90 years the ABC has been at the centre of Australian cultural life, providing a range of much-loved programming and services. It’s our country’s most trusted news source (across all platforms – radio, television and online) and where we turn in times of crisis like bushfires, floods and the current pandemic.

But the ABC is under threat. Budget cuts and massive staff redundancies over the last eight years are well known.