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Leaked Report: Abbott Ready to Gut and Dismantle the ABC
by Matthew Knott via baz - The Age Monday, Jun 23 2014, 10:56am
international / prose / post

There is a history to this dastardly plot to gut and dismember the ABC; Abbott is fulfilling a promise he made to his master, Rupert Murdoch, who despises the ABC for numerous reasons, not least of which is its large patronage and trusted status in Oz. The ABC is tailored for the national interest to serve the people, unlike the mindless American style sensationalism that the Murdoch media is noted for. The Bottom line here is that Abbott is running an errand for minority private interests to the great expense of the people, but as we have already learned Abbott is NOT a man of the PEOPLE, he is a corporate errand boy and servant to Oz plutocrats, Rinehart and Murdoch.

Tony Abbott

It is hardly worth mentioning Abbott’s pre-election promise not to touch the ABC -- the Oz population is painfully aware they have been duped by lying, corporate-serving hound, Tony Abbott.

Former PM Paul Keating once made the comment that if Abbott ever made PM then ‘God help the nation.’ Well, was he right?

Abbott must be stopped at all costs; not content to give big business virtually free rein over our national resource wealth, he maintained huge tax concessions which allowed miners to plunder OUR (common) wealth and take the profits offshore; he then targeted the most vulnerable in the community, pensioners, most of which have worked all their heavily taxed lives to EARN their entitlements, which Abbott and treasurer Hockey view as unearned privileges! Give Oz a break! The USA, for example, has very few social entitlements but also has extremely low tax rates unlike Oz where individual earners continue to pay up to 49 cents in the dollar! So where is the fairness in Mr Abbott’s policies?

Abbott is now fulfilling a pledge he made to Murdoch to trash the ABC; he has already allowed miner Gina Rinehart to dump coal mining waste onto the Barrier Reef -- much to the consternation of international environment agencies. But to a solution and there are numerous, from tragic accidents, food poisoning to exercising the people’s legal democratic prerogatives and demanding a plebiscite to oust Abbott from office immediately!


Story from The Age follows:

Government review offers secret ABC downsizing plan
by Matthew Knott

The Abbott government's cost-cutting review of the ABC envisages a radical shake-up that would lead to the outsourcing of most television programs, including flagship shows such as Play School and At the Movies, to the private sector and a further centralisation of operations in Sydney.

Fairfax Media has been briefed on the confidential report and can reveal it has estimated the ABC would save a net $70 million by outsourcing all television production to the private sector. On top of $90 million reaped by selling off production facilities, the proposal would save $400,000 each year. Implementation costs would be $20 million.

There is ''significant scope'' for savings by increasing the use of external production studios rather than filming television programs internally, the efficiency review finds.

The ABC increasingly relies on programs purchased from the independent production sector, but still makes in-house some of its most loved programs - including Play School, At the Movies and Spicks and Specks.

The review questions the ABC's decision to build new television production studios at Southbank HQ. The ABC has traditionally had a ''build and own'' culture that is out of step with the modern media, the review says.

The $70 million estimate does not include news and current affairs programs which would remain in-house.

The review's downsized vision for the ABC also includes selling off the broadcaster's fleet of outside broadcasting vans and abandoning the expansion of digital radio services.

A spokesman for Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the review, announced in January, focused on back-office operations and that programming was excluded from its terms of reference.

Any decisions on changing the ABC's levels of internal and external television production would be made by the ABC board and management.

Community and Public Sector Union president Michael Tull said that outsourcing television production would ''sound a death knell for the ABC's distinctive Australian voice''. He said: ''If that in-house capacity goes then Australia can say goodbye to the great dramas and edgy comedies which are such a central part of who we are.''

Sources who have read the draft review say it is more speculative than prescriptive in nature. The review includes estimated savings for various cost-cutting proposals, but does not make firm recommendations on which measures should be adopted.

It is understood ABC managing director Mark Scott is preparing to make major announcements on savings measures and changes to ABC structures around August.

The changes, which flow from the efficiency review and a secret overhaul called ''Project 21'', are expected to involve a dismantling of the ABC's traditional television and radio silos.

The efficiency review also proposes subjecting ABC and SBS spending to greater parliamentary scrutiny and bringing employees' pay and conditions more closely into line with workers in the private sector. Back-office operations - including switchboard services - would be centralised in the ABC's Sydney headquarters. The ABC and SBS would share headquarters for the first time, a move former prime minister Malcolm Fraser has said would lead to the eventual ''death'' of SBS.

The broadcasters would share the same catch-up online viewing service rather than maintain ABC iView and SBS On Demand.

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