The ABC managing director, Michelle Guthrie, has a very direct way of handling curly questions from parliamentarians at Senate estimates: she just refuses to accept the premise.
No, the ABC is not biased, she told Liberal senator Eric Abetz, a chief critic of the ABC. No the ABC is not Sydney-centric she told Tasmanian Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson.
“I disagree that we are Sydney-centric,” Guthrie said. “I disagree with the premise. I don’t know if you watched [new comedy] Rosehaven last week. That was filmed in Tasmania. We hope to do that of that.”
Abetz: “What about Radio National? That’s straight down the middle as well I suppose. It doesn’t favour one point of view over another?”
Guthrie: “I don’t believe it does.”
Abetz: “It looks as though, Ms Guthrie, you may have been captured.”
Guthrie and her lieutenants – editorial director Alan Sunderland and communications director Michael Millett – also strongly defended the Four Corners report on the children on Nauru, broadcast on the ABC on Monday. Millett and Sunderland helped Guthrie with the detail that she was not yet across.
When “serious and important errors” were made in ABC news we correct them, Sunderland said, but we won’t launch an inquiry into the excellent journalism on Four Corners last night.
Abetz: “I note in recent times you were looking for diversity of presenters on the ABC, is that correct?”
Guthrie: “One of the opportunities we have is to be more reflective of the community.”
Abetz: “May I suggest you get some diversity in relation to people’s views.”
Guthrie batted away questions about the ABC’s commitment to rural and regional areas and denied there were any “major changes” to Radio National.
“We have an unwavering commitment to rural and regional at the ABC,” Guthrie said.
“We have already seen that the [newly formed] regional team is producing more than 1,000 news pieces for our services across Australia.
But she did foreshadow that the broadcaster – in both radio and television – would be moving away from linear television and radio.
“It’s important that we don’t become fixed in providing a particular program at a particular time,” Guthrie said. “With Barracuda, I watched the first one on TV and then used the catch-up service for the rest.”
“I think what is under discussion is the way in which audiences are moving over time … away from scheduled broadcast,” she said. “Increasingly we’re relying on podcasts or individual program downloads and different ways of consuming content.
“We are constantly looking at ways we can allocate our budgets to make sure we are being as efficient as possible to produce content that most people can actually enjoy.”
Under questioning from Greens leader, Richard di Natale, Guthrie would not confirm whether RN would retain the same amount of specialist programs, although he asked the same question at least three times. Guthrie: “Will a particular program be there next year? I can’t guarantee that.”
Guthrie and her finance chief, David Pendleton, did however confirm that television and radio funds were being diverted away from content making into funding new digital platforms, like iview and news digital.
However recent federal government budget cuts have not reduced the funding for drama or any other genres as all the savings were found in back office functions – such as payroll.
Earlier the SBS managing director, Michael Ebeid, told the committee that a merger between the ABC and SBS was not on the agenda when he met with Guthrie, and he didn’t think she favoured one.
Ebeid said he, too, was opposed to the idea – raised by Guthrie’s predecessor Mark Scott – because SBS was needed far more now than ever before. Merging it with the ABC was a bad idea because it played a role in social cohesion.
“SBS’s need today is certainly far more in demand than even 40 years ago and I think our work is just beginning,” Ebeid said.
