Page 2995 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 15 August 2018

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Question put:

That the amendment be agreed to.

The Assembly voted—

Amendment agreed to.

Original question, as amended, resolved in the affirmative.

Australian Broadcasting Corporation—funding levels

MR STEEL (Murrumbidgee) (4.52): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) the importance of a well-funded and independent publicly-funded broadcaster for democracy, entertainment and cultural life in the ACT;

(b) that Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Canberra has been in existence for 65 years;

(c) that ABC Canberra is listened to and viewed by a significant proportion of Canberrans;

(d) the Federal Government has cut $282 million from the ABC since 2014, and $83.7 million over the past year; and

(e) these cuts have come at the expense of local programming for the ACT;

(2) calls on individual Members of the Assembly to:

(a) stand against cuts to the ABC; and

(b) tell the Assembly which way they voted in relation to privatisation of the ABC at the 2018 Liberal Party Federal Council; and

(3) further calls on the leaders of all parties in the Assembly to write a joint-letter to Senator the Hon Mitch Fifield, Minister for Communications, to express concern over the Federal Government’s cuts to the ABC.

I start by telling the Assembly that I have never voted or abstained in a vote to privatise the ABC at any Liberal Party federal council meeting, and I have every confidence that none of my Labor Assembly colleagues would have taken such action or inaction. I am pretty sure I can also say that in relation to our Greens members, but they may be able to clarify that in the debate.

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