PM Tony Abbott defends the government's cuts to the ABC and SBS, saying that efficiency dividends are being applied for the first time in 20 years.

MANAGING director of the ABC, Mark Scott, has outlined how the national broadcaster will find $254 million in savings over five years.

Mr Scott announced that more than 400 people - about 10 per cent of the staff - are set to lose their jobs at the ABC as the public broadcaster seeks to offset the federal government funding cuts.

He said close to 10 per cent of the ABC’s ongoing workforce “face potential redundancy as we adjust our activities over coming months”.

“We regard the changes as vital to securing the long-term health of the organisation but I acknowledge that is no comfort to those who will lose their positions.”

At the weekend, it was confirmed that Stateline would not be coming back next year, replaced by a Friday edition of 7.30. And this morning, Radio National’s Bush Telegraph tweeted that it would stop airing at Christmas.

Among the other high-profile cuts: the Adelaide TV production studio will close, TV production in smaller states will wind down and be based in Sydney or Melbourne, and regional radio bureaus will be shut down in Wagin, Morwell, Gladstone, Port Augusta and Nowra.

Sports coverage will also be scaled back, and there will be fewer outside broadcasts.

The ABC’s foreign bureaus will be reshaped and a new bureau will be commissioned in Beirut.

Angry reaction to cuts:

THE Abbott government is treating “everyone like mugs” when it argues its not actually making any cuts to ABC or the SBS, Labor says.

The prime minister’s election eve promise to make “no cuts to the ABC or SBS” continues to hamper his government’s move to slash $254 million from the ABC’s budget over five years.

SBS has also been asked to find $53 million in savings over the same period.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann argues the measures are “not cuts”, rather “efficiency dividends”, while Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull earlier this week said he assumes Mr Abbott meant there would be no “cuts with the intent of reducing ABC services”. Senior Labor frontbencher Penny Wong labelled the coalition’s attempts to pass the blame as extraordinary.

“They’re treating everyone like mugs,” she told ABC on Sunday. “He is a prime minister who lied to the Australian people and then is prepared to be completely brazen about it.” Trade Minister Andrew Robb on Sunday reinforced his party’s line by arguing that the ABC, as a public service, should not be immune from the government’s efforts to wind back the debt.

“The ABC, which has been a protected species for a long time, has to make its share and its contribution,” he told Sky News on Sunday.

Mr Robb’s comments come as protesters prepare to rally in Melbourne as part of a week-long Our Stories Our Future Our ABC, campaign.

More than 3000 people rallied in Sydney on Saturday and federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten will attend Sunday’s rally in Melbourne.

The Greens say the Abbott government has misjudged the public mood on cuts to the ABC and SBS.

Greens communications spokesman Senator Scott Ludlam and Greens Federal MP Adam Bandt have spoken ahead of the Save The ABC rally in Melbourne’s CBD.

“There is no doubt at all that the Abbott government has profoundly misjudged the popular mood on this issue,” Senator Ludlam told reporters.

“There is a tiny handful of extremists in the Abbott government who believe we should break-up, privatise or just cut public broadcasting to pieces, and they are completely at odds with popular opinion.

Mr Bandt said the prime minister was feeling pressure over the issue.

“Tony Abbott if you want to relieve the pressure you’re under the answer is as simple as A.B.C. - abide by commitments,” Mr Bandt said.

In Question Time, Tony Abbott defended the cuts, despite pledging on election eve there would be none.

When asked by Bill Shorten whether he denied making the promise during an interview on SBS TV, the Prime Minister said he stood by his statements.

“What this Government is doing with the ABC is applying for the first time in 20 years an efficiency dividend,” he told the Parliament.

“That’s what we’re doing.

“Members opposite thought that the ABC was the one institution that shouldn’t be subject to an efficiency dividend.

“We think it should be subject to the efficiency dividend.”

Mr Abbott said the ABC shouldn’t be “exempt” from the search of savings.

He instead challenged the Opposition Leader to commit to restoring ABC funding if elected.

If he doesn’t then he’s a “fraud”, the Prime Minister told the Lower House.

“Now this wrecker, this man with no answers and just one long complaint should stand up at the dispatch box and tell people is he going to give the ABC an extra $250 million?

“If he won’t do that he is a fraud.”