The ABC is considering rejigging the Australia Network into a smaller international broadcaster rather than scrapping it altogether, as it grapples with how to cut $120m from its budget.



“The board has asked ABC International management to provide it with additional information on a reformatted international service that delivers on our charter obligations within the confines of a reduced budget,” management told Australia Network staff. “The focus has been on developing a service that both builds on our past successes and positions us to capitalise on growth opportunities.”

The proposed international service being considered by the ABC board would employ a fraction of the current staff but it would allow the public broadcaster to deliver on its charter obligations and go ahead with a newly signed agreement with the Shanghai Media Group for broadcasts in China.

About 80 staff at the Australia Network are waiting to hear how many will be made redundant as a result of last month’s decision by the government to withdraw the 10-year $223m funding for the Australia Network.

“These workers have had an axe hanging over their head for a month – and they just don’t know when it’s going to drop,” the Community and Public Sector Union president, Michael Tull, said on Monday.

“It’s an intolerable situation – coming home from work every day to be asked by the family ‘Do you know yet?’ ”

As well as withdrawing funding for the Australia Network, the Coalition imposed a 1% reduction on the ABC’s base annual funding of $860m. (It gets additional funds for transmission and digital services, taking the total to just over $1bn.)

This cut amounts to $9m in 2014-15 and the broadcaster is yet to identify where those economies will be made. But the budget papers warned the reduction was a “downpayment” on further cuts to come.

The CPSU said a reported government plan to strip an additional $40m to $50m from the ABC budget was “vindictive and savage”.

Tull said the cuts were designed to stifle the ABC’s ability to innovate and develop new platforms like iView and News24.

The News Corp report quoted senior Coalition sources saying they would be disappointed if the cuts were not at least 4%.

The uncertainty surrounding the corporation’s financial future had “paralysed” ABC management, ABC sources said, making it impossible to decide which foreign bureaus, staff or divisions to cut.

Commissioned by the communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, the Lewis report is to give the ABC and SBS options to cut back room functions without cutting programming.

No announcements have been made as a result of the Lewis report and it is yet to be released.

“The basic problem for ABC management is that they cannot make budget decisions when the government is not saying what its budget will be,” Tull said.

“For the affected staff – who are being treated like a political football by the government – the result is an intolerable situation. Their lives are on hold and the pressure and uncertainty is awful.

“The ABC and the government have to settle the budget now. The government has to say there’s no more cuts or come clean on what the next cuts will be.”

The union also warned outside broadcast of local news, the Anzac Day march and programs such as Compass, Catalyst and Gardening Australia face the axe.