Wednesday, 7 February 2024

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (17:41): (680) My adjournment tonight is for the Minister for Creative Industries, and it concerns the ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, a very important national cultural institution. A billion dollars or more is spent on the ABC every year. It is incredibly important in supporting a range of arts and cultural activities across the country, traditionally supporting television production and associated matters, so what money is spent on it and where it is spent is actually important to Victoria. We have more than a billion dollars of federal money, and specifically what I want the minister to do is to speak to his federal colleague and to advocate for Victoria.

We know that more than 50 per cent of staff in the ABC are in New South Wales, principally in Sydney. But when you look at the ABC board there are nine members on the ABC board; none of them, not one, is from Victoria or Melbourne. Twenty-five per cent of our population is here, 25 per cent of the economy is in Victoria and a huge percentage of the arts and creative industries are in Victoria, and spending in that area underpins these industries. So money is being ripped out of Victoria in taxes, and now we have a body that is not returning it in any equal or fair way that both economically and culturally reflects our state.

There are nine members on the board; six of them are based in Sydney, one is based in Canberra, one is based in Perth and one is based in Queensland. So there are seven of them – 78 per cent – in a Sydney–Canberra axis. It is no wonder that the ABC feels like the Sydney broadcasting corporation, and it is no wonder that it feels so strongly like a body that is reflecting the culture of Sydney and New South Wales and Canberra and not the culture of Victoria. We saw that Insiders has moved to Canberra. That is just typical of what you see when you have got a body that has got seven out of nine members from New South Wales and Canberra – that is 78 per cent of the board. The weight, the pressure and the understanding from the board – and it flows down from there – is so strong.

What I want the Minister for Creative Industries to do is to make contact with the federal minister and to advocate for Victorian arts and creative industries, to make the point that the ABC is an important cultural institution. A billion dollars worth of funding – we want our share. We want equal share in terms of the staffing, and we want the board fixed. The next member of that board should be a Victorian, and the one after that and the one after that too.