In their heart of hearts, Liberals just don't think taxpayers should fund the ABC.

This week's revelations that Malcolm Turnbull's friend and ABC chairman Justin Milne pressured the national broadcaster to sack journalists critical of the government is a bad look.

But it's just the pointy end of a long-term goal for many in the Liberal Party.

They see taxpayers funding a competitor to commercial media companies, undercutting them by offering free news and entertainment programming.

Their coalition partners the Nationals have a very different view.

They know how crucial the ABC is to rural and regional life, keeping communities connected in the vast Australian bush.

But many Liberals have an ideological commitment to selling off the broadcaster.

Communications Minister Mitch Fifield has responsibility for the ABC in his portfolio, but in 2008 he said there was "merit in such proposals" to sell it off.

"The likely strong public opposition means that any government prepared to go down that path would need to prepare the ground and make the case for the change," he said in a speech to the Adam Smith Club.

That's the key line - preparing the ground.

This government has done that by cutting or freezing the ABC's budget over the past few years, and news reporting has suffered.

The Liberals have also made public and private attacks over the content of the ABC's reporting.

Mr Turnbull complained heavily about ABC economic correspondent Emma Alberici's report on big companies who avoid paying tax.

More recently, Mr Turnbull was upset with political correspondent Andrew Probyn's story about the timing of the Super Saturday by-elections, which were scheduled for the same date as Labor's annual conference.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he too had officially complained about the ABC's coverage.

"They've got it wrong on plenty of occasions and they've apologised to me for getting it wrong on a number of occasions as well," he told reporters on Thursday.

In June the Liberal federal council comfortably passed a motion calling for the ABC to be privatised except in regional and rural areas.

When the inevitable public outcry hit, Mr Turnbull had to hose it down.

"The ABC will always be in public hands. It will never be sold. That is my commitment," he said.

Even Senator Fifield backed the then-prime minister.

"The ABC will not be privatised," he told parliament.

The ground clearly isn't prepared yet.

But it's not for lack of trying.

Before James Paterson was a Liberal senator he went on the ABC and called for it to be privatised, ticking it off his "bucket list".

Queensland senator James McGrath used his maiden speech in 2014 to say the youth station Triple J should be sold off.

NSW Liberal Craig Kelly this week said the ABC should be "given away".

Former Howard government minister Peter Reith has regularly called for the ABC to be privatised, and he backed it up with a column written in 2014.

Many other Liberal senators voted in June for a motion congratulating them for drawing attention to "structural and budgetary reform of the ABC".

The ground might not yet be prepared, but it is being softened.

There are three ABC bills before the Senate, which haven't passed yet due to a lack of support.

One will require the ABC to consider the needs of rural and regional areas more, thanks to the Nationals.

Another aims to publicise the salaries of all employees and on-air contractors on more than $200,000 a year, similar to laws in the United Kingdom.

The third is a push from One Nation to insert the words "fair and balanced" into the ABC charter, which the ABC argues is correcting a problem that doesn't exist.

The ABC has at times not helped its own cause, focusing too much on the inner city and particularly Sydney, at the expense of the regions who rely on it.

And it has targeted growth in areas already well-served by commercial operators.

But support for the national broadcaster is vast and cuts across party lines.

A recent survey showed three in four voters backed higher or the same funding for the ABC and another poll rated it the most trusted news organisation in the country.

The Liberals are preparing the ground for a sale, but as this week shows, they've got more digging to do.