The ABC should be funded for 10 years at a time to allow it to modernise its infrastructure and protect it from the whims of politicians, the Coalition’s yet-to-be released efficiency review of the public broadcasters has recommended.

Giving the ABC more autonomy is probably not what the communications minister had in mind when he announced the review of the ABC and SBS, along with an $84m indexation pause, in the 2018 budget.

But the communications bureaucrat Richard Bean and the former chief executive of News Corp and Foxtel Peter Tonagh concluded the ABC needed expensive new infrastructure to keep up with rapid changes in technology, and long-term funding certainty was preferable to the current triennial funding.

The ABC has lost $393m over five years under the Coalition government.

Handed to the government in December, the secret $1m report has languished in Mitch Fifield’s office for months and may never be released if Labor wins the election.

Weekly Beast understands Tonagh and Bean suggested a more stable funding base for the ABC as well as refocusing on core public broadcasting activities in a time of budgetary restraint. That would mean more investigative journalism, Australian drama and radio and less lifestyle content such as ABC Life, a source told Beast.

The SBS Food and Viceland multi-channels also came under fire for not being core activities under the SBS charter. The ABC and SBS boards should consider where resources are being spent when budgets are stretched, the report said.

We reckon the Institute of Public Affairs’ recent call to privatise the ABC has got about as much chance as the efficiency review of being implemented.

The IPA, of which Fifield and other Liberals remain members, published its “20 policies to fix Australia” this week.

On the ABC, it says: “In a free society the government should not own and operate its own media company. The media market in Australia is highly competitive. Online platforms have transformed and disrupted traditional approaches to media. Consumers have never had more choice about where to source their news and opinions on current affairs. Moreover, the ABC is unremittingly biased. Its staff are five times more likely to vote for the Greens compared to the general population. The ABC is beyond reform. New leaders will not fix the problem, regardless of their experience or intention. The ABC must be privatised.”

Adani cheer squad

On Thursday News Corp’s north Queensland newspapers – the Townsville Bulletin, Mackay Daily Mercury and Rockhampton Morning Bulletin – joined forces to support the Adani mine, which they say will breathe new life into the depressed region. The regional papers ran identical front pages with an open letter calling on politicians for more clarity about the project.

The campaign is led by businessman Peter Tapiolas, who admits the idea grew out of a recent lunch with the chief executive of Adani Mining Australia, Lucas Dow.

“I could not sit by and watch our Townsville and the regional economies go from bad to worse while our political and advocacy leaders continue to sit on their hands and do little to reverse the situation,” Tapiolas said.

Auto crash

Some politicians have automatic news feeds on their websites, which can be a little embarrassing when a negative story hits. This week it was revealed George Christensen had billed taxpayers more than $3,000 for connecting flights during his frequent trips to the Philippines, and his website was spitting out all the ugly details. The member for Manila’s news feed now appears to have been disabled.

When the auto name feed goes wrong - not sure these are the headlines George Christensen was hoping for his website #ausvotes19 pic.twitter.com/GBJDbnUbsK — Amy Remeikis (@AmyRemeikis) April 16, 2019

Oleaginous oration

Sounding as though he had swallowed a thesaurus, the chief executive of News Corp, Robert Thomson railed against the “net narcissism” of the digital giants, social media and “illiberal liberals” in a speech in Melbourne this week.

“There is no doubt that a mob mentality has taken hold in much of the west and among the most pronounced of the mobs are illiberal liberals, who are roaming the landscape in the seemingly endless, insatiable quest for indignation and umbrage,” Thomson said. “It is vituperation as virtue.”

He littered his speech with alliteration such as: sanguinely supine; institutionally ingrained; vituperation as virtue; affirmation through alienation and virtue in victimhood.

Thomson also took aim at the New York Times, describing its recent feature on the Murdoch succession as a “rancid hatchet job” that was “distant from the truth”.

“This is the Sir Keith Murdoch Oration but it would be remiss to ignore what Rupert has done for the media and for our country and for many other countries,” Thomson said in a fawning tribute to the boss. “To see Rupert up close each day, to witness the restless curiosity, the endless energy, and a genuine humility is in such stark and breathtaking contrast to the ill-informed institutional critiques.”

Hostile climate for nine-year-olds

We wonder if Thomson changed his mind about just who was publishing rancid hatchet jobs when he read the front page of Wednesday’s Daily Telegraph, which attacked schoolchildren for taking action on climate change.

“A Sydney public school has been forced to remove notes students as young as nine wrote to Prime Minister Scott Morrison warning ‘everything in the world could be extinct’ unless he does something about global warming,” the Tele reported under the tasteless headline “Kiddie Pawn”.

“The Education Department ordered Ramsgate Public School to remove two letters from students published in an online newsletter because they breached the department’s Controversial Issues in Schools policy.”

Wednesday’s front page of The Daily Telegraph ⁦@dailytelegraph⁩ pic.twitter.com/wJkqqTVYy7 — Ben English (@bennyglish) April 16, 2019

Jobs going west

Two years after News Corp sold the Sunday Times and the Perth Now website to Seven West Media, 36 journalists have been made redundant in a cull of staff the media union has called a “devastating blow for West Australians”. Among the senior hands walking away are award-winning state political editor Gary Adshead and health editor Cathy O’Lear.

The new editor, Anthony De Ceglie, called for voluntary redundancies across the West Australian and the Sunday Times because he is bringing the two papers together in a seven-day operation. He has indicated more change is to come, including putting up a paywall.

The West Australian director of the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance, Tiffany Venning, said in a one-newspaper town such as Perth, the losses would harm the public’s right to know. “The departure of these journalists means local WA media is shrinking – and that translates to dramatically less coverage of crucial community issues,” she said. Seven West Media declined to comment.

Beat of a different drum

The Drum, which aired the first of its election roadshow specials this week, has a strong track record when it comes to regular panelists springboarding into politics. And yes, it is a phenomenon across the political divide.

Kerryn Phelps was a regular Drum panelist before she ran as an independent in Wentworth; Shireen Morris often made an appearance before she was pre-selected by Labor for Deakin, and Fiona McLeod hadn’t been a Drum regular for very long when she was snapped up by Labor to run in Higgins.

Katrina Hodgkinson was a regular before she was preselected for Gilmore by the National party and Georgina Downer would appear in the studio in between standing and losing and standing again for the seat of Mayo. Others who made the transition from The Drum to the ballot box include Jacinta Price, Sam Crosby, Jason Ball and Warren Mundine.