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ABC Board - Trustees for the People Chairman, Donald Mcdonald Quarterly Newsletter: Autumn 2000 Vol.2 No.1 Friends of the ABC Australia Sell-out of the ABC by its trustees? In this issue There has been an outcry in the media about plans to join the ABC's future to Telstra's, and an outcry about Senator Alston's Independence leaked directive re ABC management in a letter to board ABC Board - trustees for the people chairman, Donald McDonald. Little by little, the ABC dies A moral minefield At the same time good news about the ABC abounds. We Media monitor Media Watched know that 92% of Australians rate the value of the ABC to the Challenge to the Federal Government Australian community as valuable. We know that average ABC tops the list of public broadcasters production costs for both radio and television are around Cash for Content 0.4% of those of the commercial stations and networks. We Valuing our ABC know that there are twice the number of Australians who rate Whose products? the quality of ABC television programs 'good' as for their commercial rivals - 87% to 43%. And we also know that while Thus the ABC is becoming increasingly dependent on a variety of the cost of the BBC per day per person is the equivalent of 33 commercial sources. The ABC is built on trust. If the foundations cents a day, we pay 7.7 cents. are eaten away and the building begins to crumble, it will be only It was sad therefore to hear the minister responsible for the a question of time before what we have is only a facade. funding and well-being of the ABC, Senator Alston, tell Paul The ABC has to be properly funded from the public purse. It is Barry on Media Watch 21/2, 'I think in terms of modern held in such high regard by the Australian people - remember management practices the ABC is languishing badly with that 92% - that paying for it from taxes must be a proper measure comparison with people like the BBC, I don't think it has the for any government. same efficiency ethos that others do.' Note that while Senator Alston is responsible also for commercial radio, we have not We are riding high economically and are told we can look forward observed him judging those 'ranting for reward'. to a more efficient tax system. We are not living in a third-world country. Strange, isn't it, how the private sector is self-regulated, ill- supervised, exploitative and shielded from competition, while We cannot afford not to have a robust and fearless public the public broadcaster is to be hog-tied in its planning and broadcaster wholly funded by the Parliament to which it is performance by boards of 'independent experts' and thrown accountable. This is a message every one of us must send - by to the commercial wolves for its funding. letter or phone - to our federal MPs and to the Prime Minister and Cabinet before it is too late. The ABC is built on trust background briefing The ABC is still thought to be free of the influence of editor: Joan Laing corporations and not in the business of tailoring its programs GPO Box 203 Adelaide 5001 for sponsors. But one-fifth of its operating expenses now phone & fax: 08 8271 [email protected] comes from sources other than parliamentary appropriations, unattributed text is by the editor and the submission from ABC management and Board for the next deadline: May 8 next triennium includes an offer to raise a further $40 million, which would bring the total operating revenue from 'independent sources' to $180 million. The ABC Board - trustees for the people of Australia We must go back to May 1970, and the Gorton government. The ABC had sent its budget request to Alan Hulme, the David Bowman comments on Senator Alston's leaked letter to relevant minister. He told the ABC chairman, Robert Madgwick, Chairman Donald McDonald. that he would pass this on to the Treasurer with the advice that This is taken from an article in The Adelaide Review 2/2000 it be reduced by $500,000, at least half the sum to be taken out of television current affairs. The account that follows here is There is another reference to which the minister points. He based on This is the ABC, Ken Inglis's indispensable history says that this ... published in 1983. specifically allows the minister to furnish the board with a The ABC commissioners (predecessors of today's board statement of government policy 'on any matter relating to members) are under no illusions about the implications in the broadcasting or any matter of administration', and the board minister's action and were resolute. They prepare a reply telling is then required to give it proper consideration. Mr Hulme that while they recognise the government's right to make the ABC live within whatever overall budget is granted, it So, he asks innocently, what is all the present fuss about? is they, the commissioners, who have to decide how the budget He knows well enough. It is about his motives and intentions. will be divided up. It is, to repeat, the duty of the ABC board to preserve the The six commissioners who can get to Canberra wait on Mr Corporation's independence. The managing director, Brian Hulme. The ABC staff back them up; the Leader of the Johns, who is to retire next month, says it is vital (his word) to Opposition, Gough Whitlam, raises the matter in parliament; the independence of the ABC that programming and internal newspapers in several states defend the ABC. Five days after budget decisions continue to be the preserve of the the meeting between minister and commissioners, ABC staff broadcaster itself. hold a mass meeting of protest. On the same day, the minister And it is just such decisions that the minister is trying to capitulates. Sir Robert Madgwick issues a statement that the encroach upon. He is acting for a government which, as the reduction proposed would have been completely unacceptable ominous words of a leaked cabinet document showed two to the commission. 'The time had come when we had to dig in years ago, seeks changes: our toes', he said later. 'to give us the ability to influence future ABC functions and And all those ABC commissioners who stood up to the Liberal activities more directly.' minister had been appointed by Liberal-Country Party governments. Well, if the ABC board members remember that they are trustees for the public, they will be wary indeed of Senator DAVID BOWMAN Alston's Trojan horse. There is a previous case of a minister barging into this no-go area of ABC but it remains relevant. Little by little, the ABC dies This thin-end-of-the-wedge approach to commercialising the ABC is only one aspect of what has become common practice in Stewart Fist, Information Technology journalist with The government and political circles, and in many public and mutual Australian, examines how politicians and executives manage organisations (notably AMP and NRMA). unpopular change in an age in which they have lost public trust. In the last week alone I could point to stories about CARE workers in Somalia and Serbia who were asked to help with ... the thin-end-of-the-wedge approach when something military monitoring. It compromised all international nasty is being introduced, and salami-slicing when good humanitarian missions -- but only a little! things are being taken away. Incrementalism is a well-understood technique of governance SBS also revealed that for almost a year AustAid told the that is effective when executives and politicians need to force Australian government Indonesian militia were incrementally through change against public opposition. Incrementalism has murdering Timor's opposition. Indonesia correctly judged that two subdivisions: the thin-end-of-the-wedge approach when daily massacres of 10 to 20 people would be below Australia's something nasty is being introduced, and salami-slicing when threshold for action. We have a remarkable tolerance for small good things are being taken away. massacres among non-European people. The whole point of incrementalism is to be unobtrusive so, Then there's the Australian Broadcasting Authority's cash-for- when a story hits the front pages of the newspaper, the tactic comment report on John Laws and Alan Jones -- an example of has partly failed. Then there is a need to go public, a system finally reaching the thick end of the wedge, where it is characterise objectors as zealots, purists, or fanatics, and say impossible to pretend it hasn't been noticed. everyone is overreacting. This last claim has the uncommon When the wedge has been driven in far enough to be widely virtue of truth. noticed and bought to public attention, there are a number of Opponents of incremental change have no choice but to over- standard and predictable defences. react. Increments always increase when the first change has been adopted. The only successful tactic is to cut off Globalisation and world's best-practice are always good lines to trot out. We are told Australia must follow the pattern of other incrementalism at the earliest possible moment. countries or be left behind. Communications Minister Richard Bureaucrats and politicians know most people have a high Alston used this line to claim the ABC is only following the BBC's threshold of annoyance, and require attacks on their personal lead in flogging its online material. well-being before they respond and participate in counter measures. So the whistleblower can always be isolated and (continued on next screen) labelled difficult, or someone with a bee in their bonnet.
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