ABC funding cuts: Mathias Cormann denies Government has broken election commitment not to cut broadcaster's budget

Updated

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann denies the Federal Government has broken its election commitment not to cut the ABC's budget.

Yesterday, Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced the ABC's budget would be reduced by $254 million over the next five years.

Mr Turnbull said the ABC would receive $5.2 billion in funding over that time - a cut of 4.6 per cent - and SBS's operating budget would be reduced by $25.2 million, or 1.7 per cent, over the same period.

Before last year's federal election, then opposition leader Tony Abbott promised there would be no cuts to the ABC and SBS under a Coalition government.

Senator Cormann said the Government had imposed an efficiency dividend on the public broadcasters in line with other Government departments.

"These are not cuts. The ABC has been exempted from efficiency dividends for the last 20 years, efficiency dividends which apply to every other department in Government, every other agency of Government that is funded by the taxpayer," he told AM.

"The Prime Minister absolutely told the truth. We are not making cuts, we're making sure that what happens to the ABC happens with every other taxpayer-funded organisation across Government, and that's that it operates as efficiently as possible, and that is our responsibility.

"We need to ensure that taxpayers' money is treated with respect."

Mr Turnbull also defended Mr Abbott's election-eve comment that there would be no cuts to the ABC.

"The Prime Minister said that in one interview, I think the night before the election, but Joe Hockey and I had made it very clear, on a number of ABC programs in fact that ... if there were going to be cuts across the board, as plainly there would have to be across the board of Government - I mean to address the budgetary problems - the budget deficit and so forth, then the ABC and SBS couldn't be exempt," he told 7.30.

"But we would be seeking to address waste and inefficiencies and not, as some people were urging us to do, cut the ABC's budget with the intent of reducing its digital presence or its broadcasting activities."

When asked by host Leigh Sales, "But you must understand that for voters, when someone says 'no cuts', you think 'no cuts'," he responded: "No, look, I understand that."

"But to accept that Tony Abbott meant the ABC and SBS - out of all of the agencies of Government - would be exempt from any savings measure, to accept that, you would have to assume that he had decided on the eve of the election to overrule and contradict the very carefully considered statements that Joe Hockey and I had been making."

Media Watch host says cuts are reasonable, but still a broken promise

Media Watch host Paul Barry told The Australian the budget cut was reasonable given Australia's budget position.

"A cut of 5 per cent or 6 per cent or 8 per cent is considerably lighter than it's been in the past,'' he said.

"At a time when everything else in the country is being cut, I don't think it's unreasonable, but I do think it's a broken promise.

"Everything else is being cut. I see no reason, apart from the broken promise, why the ABC shouldn't be included in that list."

'If the adjustment leads to lesser funds, it's a cut'

Opposition communication's spokesman Jason Clare said Mr Turnbull's defence did not pass "the pub test".

"Well, what he's effectively saying - break it down - he said this on Q&A as well - is that 'Tony Abbott didn't break a promise because even though Tony Abbott said there'd be no cuts to the ABC, what he really meant was that there'll be no cuts over and above the cuts that I said there'd be to the ABC'," Mr Clare told Lateline.

"Now, come on, come on. We're going to hold the Prime Minister to his words. That sort of excuse is worse than kids make up for why they didn't do their homework.

"People know the Prime Minister promised the night before the election that there'd be no cuts to the ABC and he said that along with a long list of other promises - no cuts to health, no cuts to education, no changes to the pension. And he's broken all of them. This long laundry list of lies."

Mr Clare agreed all organisations could be more efficient and the ABC was no exception to that.

"But I'd argue that to be good to the Prime Minister's word, we should find efficiencies inside the ABC and SBS and then invest them in more programs, more services for the Australian people, not break a word, which is what I'm saying he's done, what most people agree the Prime Minister's done, by breaking the word that there would be no cuts to the ABC and he said that the night before the election," he said.

'A cut's a cut' says former PM Fraser

Former Liberal prime minister Malcolm Fraser said "a cut's a cut, you can't get around it" and feared it will significantly affect the work of the public broadcaster.

"The kind of cuts that the Government is talking about now is going to diminish the ABC, diminish its capacity for investigative journalism and if I was being harsh about it, they've already talked about rationalising backroom services between the SBS and the ABC," he said.

"I would say that's the first step towards trying to merge the two."

Head of news should report directly to the CEO: Turnbull

Mr Turnbull also raised the prospect that managing director Mark Scott be stripped of his role as editorial director, but denied prescribing that amounts to political interference.

"Mark [Scott] has the title of managing director and editor-in-chief," he said.

"Now I'm not quite sure what editor-in-chief actually means. Mark does not run news and current affairs at the ABC, Kate Torney does. But it creates the impression that he is in charge of news and current affairs here in a direct way, which he isn't.

"So I do think that given ... the ABC's accuracy and impartiality and objectivity in its news and current affairs there is nothing it does that is more important than that.

"Now, my humble suggestion is - [as] a simple minister of the Crown - is to say that they should, the board should consider having the head of news and current affairs reporting directly to the CEO, obviously in the line of command, but also like the CFO to the board."

Earlier this week the ABC's Media Watch program reported that as a result of the ABC budget cuts:

Friday's state-based 7.30 programs will be axed

Lateline will be cut back but it stays on the main channel

ABC bureaux in Tokyo, Bangkok, New Delhi and New Zealand will also be crunched, with a claimed loss of 20 jobs

TV production in South Australia outside news and current affairs will be shut down

$6 million will be sliced off ABC Radio, with big cuts at Classic FM.

In all around 400 to 500 jobs will go, with people being shown the door by Christmas

Mr Scott released a statement saying saving measures are still being planned and staff will be briefed in a national hook-up on Monday.

Topics: abc, broadcasting, information-and-communication, federal-government, abbott-tony, australia

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