Loading "We haven't done it sometimes because someone didn't want to come onto the panel or there are [other] reasons as to why this has happened. But if I can see an area to improve, I can see that," he said. Coalition MPs regularly complain about what they regard as left-wing bias on the ABC. Senator Eric Abetz has accused Q&A host Tony Jones of "editorialising" and former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull complained about chief economics correspondent Emma Alberici and political editor Andrew Probyn last year. Prime Minister Scott Morrison declined an invitation to appear on Q&A for a solo panel in May before the federal election. Mr Anderson said there was no evidence of systemic bias at the broadcaster but conceded the make-up of the broadcaster's panel shows - which also include weekday current affairs discussion program The Drum - could negatively affect public perception. The greater diversity could include political views, ethnic background and gender. "I think that is what leads to people's rush to judgment about the ABC being biased perhaps, that we haven't accurately reflected what would be the views of the country for whatever reason," he said.

ABC chairwoman Ita Buttrose, who replaced Justin Milne in February, said last month that some staff at the broadcaster "might be biased" and supported broadcasting a greater range of views. The ABC is held to a high standard of accuracy and impartiality by legislation. Two independent audits in 2014 on the ABC's coverage of the 2013 election and the immigration debate found its journalism was impartial. David Anderson said he would review ABC Life, a website launched under his predecessor Michelle Guthrie. Credit:Louise Kennerley Making choices about how to spend money has become more critical for Mr Anderson after the Turnbull government imposed an indexation freeze on the ABC's $1 billion-a-year budget for three years. The ABC expects the freeze, which effectively ignores the impact of inflation, to reduce funding by $15 million in the first year, $28 million in the second and $41 million in the third, based on an inflation rate of 3 per cent. "I do think that it's difficult to reach that [$41 million] number without some impact on our content or our staff," Mr Anderson said.

Loading Before the election he said a Morrison government would result in "inevitable" staff cuts and disruption to content. Labor had promised to reverse these cuts. "We will look to minimise any effect on content... but I do worry about meeting that challenge of $40 million in that third year, so we've got time to deal with it beforehand," he said. Mr Anderson said he had decided to review ABC Life, a website launched in August 2018 under his predecessor Ms Guthrie who was sacked from the broadcaster in September. The content on the website covers softer topics such as well-being, food, home and garden, and sex and relationships. Prominent headlines on stories on Sunday included "I haven't had sex in 18 years. Is it because I'm 'trying too hard'?" and "A doctor's one-night stand could lead to a change in your underarm smell".

ABC Life has faced criticism from some commentators for being a poor use of taxpayer funds as lifestyle content is heavily covered by commercial media outlets. "ABC Life is relatively new, I think we have set to review ABC Life in the coming months to see if it has done the job that we wanted ABC Life to do [and] look at its relative success," Mr Anderson said. "That means quantitatively and qualitatively and assess what we do and whether we continue that or not." He added the review would not necessarily result in a "binary" decision to close it or keep it running. ABC Life and SBS Food were mentioned as areas for potential budget savings by a recent efficiency review which described them as "further away" from the public broadcaster's core charter responsibilities. The efficiency review has not yet been publicly released. Mr Anderson said the review provided "useful places to look and I think that some of those places ... we would've been looking at any way".