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.
In the first, ABC Alumni chair Jonathan Holmes reminds us that it is still Liberal Party policy to privatise the ABC; that cuts and indexation pauses have taken half a billion dollars out of the ABC’s budget since 2014; and that the party’s favourite think-tank, the IPA, believes that “the ABC is dangerous to democracy”. 1
View it here. Like it on Facebook. Tweet this link https://youtu.be/WPycNs6mlxU to your followers on Twitter, with hashtag #vote1ABC. Spread the word.
And also check out our Campaigns page.2
There are more videos (all of them shorter!) on the way: Philippa McDonald on emergency broadcasting … Kerry O’Brien on the ABC and democracy … Ann Chesterman on triple j Unearthed … Virginia Haussegger on state-based current affairs … Phil Williams on foreign reporting … and Tim Bowden, in a satirical ‘Chatback’, gets a letter from Lachlan of Bellevue Hill, Sydney.
As Jonathan says in this first video, we can say the things the ABC can’t. So let’s do that.
Thanks to Bruce Belsham for production help and original music, to Dave Martin for camera work, and to Morten Furre and Nick Arnold of Scout Publishing who edited.
FOOTNOTES
1ABC Alumni is an independent company run entirely by volunteers who formerly worked for the public broadcaster. These videos present our own views and have been made independently, without consultation with the ABC.
2For further information about the Alumni’s policy on the election and other activities, please see our Campaigns page on this website. We do not support any particular political parties or candidates, but we do call out policies, actions and commentary that work against a properly-funded and independent ABC.
Jonathan Holmes is Chair of ABC Alumni and a former ABC journalist and executive producer, and presenter of ‘Media Watch’. Contrary to recent claims in News Corp outlets, Jonathan has no affiliation or “partnership” with ‘GetUp!’. He does not endorse any political parties or independent candidates.