The ABC’s news department is not over-resourced, according to Malcolm Turnbull’s review into whether the broadcaster and SBS could work more efficiently.



However, the review is believed to have found efficiency savings in some areas of the ABC.



The final report of the efficiency review, by Seven West Media’s former chief financial officer, Peter Lewis, will be handed to the communications minister before the budget next week, but any cuts to the ABC budget will be a separate consideration.

Guardian Australia understands Lewis failed to find “mountains of fat” for cutting.

The biggest budget threat to the ABC remains the axing of the $223m Australia Network. The contract was awarded to the ABC in perpetuity by the Gillard Labor government in 2011 and is funded at $20 million a year by the department of foreign affairs and trade.

News Corp reported in January that the Australia Network was likely to be scrapped in the May budget to save money “and end the pursuit of ‘soft diplomacy’ in the Asia region through television”.

Last month ABC International was offered an opportunity to establish a multi-platform media arrangement in China, due to be signed in June, which will extend the reach of the ABC’s international arm.

The network is not funded by the ABC’s global $1.1bn budget, but some resources are shared across the two organisations.

A team of separate ABC staff, including former Canberra correspondent Jim Middleton, is paid for out of the Australia Network budget. There are also some foreign correspondents across Asia who file for both services. If the service is axed it would impact on the ABC’s Asia coverage, sources say.

The employee-elected director on the ABC board, Matthew Peacock, has written to staff to warn them the Australia Network has been targeted for closure.

“[Rupert] Murdoch has a clear agenda – he wants it for his own commercial service. Australia Network has just secured the biggest coup of any western media: access to the entire Chinese audience through web-based services, as well as a similar deal with Indonesia,” Peacock wrote in an email to all staff.

“It would be a tragedy to waste these successful initiatives. However, if the government does walk away from its contract with the ABC for this service, some job losses seem inevitable.

“The ABC still has a duty in its charter to provide a service for international audiences and the board no doubt will ensure that it does, but this will make the job harder.”

In a personal message sanctioned for distribution by the ABC board, Peacock said staff were also facing budget cuts and the efficiency review.

“Although there are rumours of a cut to the ABC in the forthcoming budget, this would be contrary to prime minister Abbott’s pre- and post-election promises,” Peacock wrote. “So far there no reason to doubt this public commitment.

“Nonetheless, staff know that cumulative real cuts to the ABC’s budget over the past three decades have left the national broadcaster a shell of its former self. The effect has been stronger because ABC services have more than tripled during this time. Costs for capital reinvestment and computer-based delivery from pioneering services like I-View are also increasing, placing further pressure on existing output.

“Any cuts will have major effects. There is no real flexibility within current services to trim ‘fat’. We have already seen the result of previous cuts. Inevitably, they increase centralised production from Sydney, with a corresponding cutback to regional and state-based facilities and less local output.”