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By ROBBIE MASON.
The ABC has axed 120 jobs amid major restructuring, shifting away from regional news and gutting its entire arts team, internal documents reveal. The ABC’s managing director, David Anderson, announced the job cuts on Thursday.
The broadcaster released its five-year plan last Friday, outlining its intention to transition into a digital-first media organisation. This pathway involves focusing on ABC iview, ABC Listen and ABC News in lieu of live AM radio programs and broadcast television channels.
Greens Spokesperson for Media and Communications Senator Sarah Hanson-Young expressed dismay at the latest ABC job cuts, saying “this is shocking for public interest journalism and for the hardworking, talented staff of the ABC.”
“At a time when trust in news is at its lowest, it is essential that we have a strong national broadcaster delivering quality local and national news.”
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has demanded the ABC meet with the union to fulfil requirements in its workplace agreement to consult with unions prior to significant staff turn-over. The union has requested the ABC explore options for the redeployment of staff and advised it to offer voluntary redundancies before forced redundancies.
The news follows the success of a lengthy industrial campaign this year by ABC staff. This campaign, which ensured a one-off bonus of $1500 and a 4% increase in base rates of pay, involved strikes and walk-outs over poor pay rates, alarming workplace conditions and obstacles to career progression for early-career journalists.
Chronic underfunding
Staff at public broadcasters have faced ever-tightening purse strings. Successive federal governments have slashed funding for the ABC and SBS, rendering the nation’s track record in backing public broadcasters especially poor.
In 2018, the ABC’s then managing director, Michelle Guthrie, told the Melbourne Press Club that its per capita funding had halved in real terms across the 30 years prior.
Senator Hanson-Young highlighted the need for urgent intervention. “Under the Coalition Government we saw $783 million cut from the ABC’s budget. That funding has never been fully restored”.
“It’s now time for Labor to fully reinstate ABC funding to fix more than a decade of Coalition cuts”, she said.
“We cannot wait another 5 years for the funding to be reviewed. The Albanese Government must urgently intervene to ensure that our public broadcaster is properly funded.”
The ABC’s political editor, Andrew Probyn, is the most high-profile publicly-known victim so far.
MEAA Media Director Cassie Derrick has said the targeting of long-standing, experienced journalists will damage the quality of the ABC’s reporting well into the future and deprive young reporters of valuable mentorship opportunities.
“The ABC has been running on empty for the past decade and we are concerned about how it can continue to deliver quality public interest journalism with even fewer staff following these cuts,” she said.
Supporters have panned the ABC’s decision online. In response to the news, Phillip Coorey, political editor at the Australian Financial Review, labelled the ABC a “disgrace” on Twitter and Probyn the “hardest working ABC journalist I know”. “A sad day”, said Late Night Live producer Catherine Zengerer, meanwhile.
.@andrewprobyn is the hardest working ABC journalist I know and the broadcaster's best and most constant news breaker. And they've sacked him because they suddenly don't need a political editor. What a disgrace from an organisation full of middle-management time servers. @abcnews
— Phillip Coorey (@PhillipCoorey) June 15, 2023
Today is a sad day for a lot of people at the ABC (not just Andrew Probyn). I'm so sorry for everyone who has been told they no longer have a job today. I hope you are getting support and remember to talk to your union @withMEAA @CPSUnion #auspol https://t.co/1QDJqAgYlD
— Catherine Zengerer (@Catherine_Zen) June 15, 2023
Arts team decimated
Arts coverage is on the chopping block, although the ABC has pledged to establish a dedicated Climate, Environment and Energy reporting team and to reintroduce Stateline, which will produce in-depth longform journalism.
An internal document viewed by the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) has revealed that “a Managing Editor Arts and an Arts Digital Editor role will be abolished” under the changes.
According to the SMH, a spokesperson for the ABC insisted that staff currently employed in the arts team will be moved to a newly created Art, Music, and Events department. Impacted staff members dispute these claims.
Melbourne writer and journalist Ben Eltham has questioned the ethics behind the dissolution of the ABC arts team on Twitter. The decision “breaches the broadcaster’s Charter”, he has suggested.
“One of the ABC’s legislated functions is to ‘encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia’”.
The ABC's decision today to abolish its arts team arguably breaches the broadcaster's Charter.
One of the ABC's legislated functions is to "encourage and promote the musical, dramatic and other performing arts in Australia."
Very serious Qs need to be asked pic.twitter.com/XAatwDGZA1
— Ben Eltham (@beneltham) June 15, 2023
