The Australian democrats view the media as a fundamental player in Australia's democracy, culture and community interaction. Critical to Australia's media mix is well funded public and community broadcasting. Public and Community broadcasting are a significant source of programming which is independent, innovative and reflects the diversity of cultures in Australia.
In financial years 2003/4 and 2004/5, the Federal Government is on track to receive over $260 million in additional revenue from the sale of commercial radio licences. Yet, despite this massive financial windfall, the public and community broadcasting sector remained starved of funds. The Democrats propose that the funds raised from the sale of commercial broadcasting licences be placed into a Public and Community Broadcasting Development Fund, and allocated over the next four years to key initiatives to develop and expand the public and community broadcasting sectors. These include:
Additional funds to the ABC
The ABC is one of the country's most important cultural institutions, and an important part of our democracy. It provides a lifeline to regional Australia, informed current affairs reporting, vital contributions to Australia culture and provision of Australian content. Since 1985, ABC funding has fallen 30%, under both Labor and Coalition Governments, with the biggest cut in the first Budget of the Howard Government. The BBC receives almost 10 times the funding of the ABC for only 3 times the population of Australia.
In 2003, ABC management was forced to scrap their digital multi-channelling programs FLY TV and ABC Kids; and other key programming like Behind the News and current affairs. ABC's Australian drama and comedy programming is well below the Australian broadcasting Authorities commercial free to air broadcasters quota
Additional funding must be provided if the ABC is to play the proper role intended for a public broadcaster in a modern democracy. Funding should be provided to:
- Establish 'ABC Independent', a commissioning trust fund to invest fund solely within Australian independent production sector. ABC independent would enable the production of an additional 29.5 hours of quality, first-run Australian drama and comedy each year.
- Enable the ABC to start providing quality content to Australian Audiences via new digital platform (broadband and multi-channel). Services could include ABC Kids Digital, ABC News and Information Digital, and Triple J Broadband, dependent on funding.
- Extend transmission of radio networks. Currently, over a million Australian's in regional, areas of Australia do not yet have access to ABC 'national' networks, especially Triple J and ABC NewsRadio.
- Enable ABC to broadcast an additional 78 hours of extra program annually to regional areas.
- Offset the increased cost of broadcasting and program making, which are increasing at a faster rate than the indexation of the ABC base rate funding.
- Funding the outstanding $12 million debt on redundancies from the Jonathon Shier era. The Shier restructuring, actively encouraged by the Government, did enormous financial and organisational damage to the ABC. Funding the debt would allow the ABC to reallocate $12 million of core funding back into programs and services.
The Democrats also call for the Government to commit to renewing the National Interest Initiatives Program (NII) post 2004/05 budget. The NII has allowed the ABC to introduce new programs and services in regional and rural Australia. Commitment to the funding beyond next financial year, will give the ABC the certainty required for the future delivery of these services.
Additional funds to SBS
SBS has been critical in the role it plays in bringing about a sense of multicultural understanding and increased awareness of the diversity of cultures in the wider community through all its programs and services.
The Democrats support SBS bid for additional funding to enhance radio services, allowing more language groups to be represented, and expanding coverage to regional areas.
The Democrats also support SBS request for funding to compete in multi-platform, new technology environment, including the development of broadband delivery. The Democrats also support additional funding to the highly successful SBS Independent production house, whose production "Harvey Krumpet" won an Academy Award this year.
While the Democrats support SBS's call to fund additional free-to-air digital channels, the Democrats believe the priority in the first instance should be to funding multi-channelling for the ABC, which it was forced to shut down in July 2003.
Additional funds for Community Broadcasting
The Democrats believe that a democratic, cohesive, multicultural society can only be maintained and developed if all Australians achieve equality in access to services and opportunities in Australia. Community broadcasting plays a critical role in achieving this by providing a vital source of independent programming delivered to ethnic specific and local audiences, and specialized information unavailable elsewhere.
Community broadcasting brings programming diversity, media access, and the opportunity for training in broadcast skills to all Australians. The sector is essentially self-funding, but government support remains a vital catalyst for sector development and allows the production of specialist program content to meet community needs.
Despite partial indexation, the Australian Government assistance for community broadcasting development has declined in real terms by 6% since the introduction of targeted funding in 1996/97. Yet the sector has grown by almost two thirds over the same period. Additional funding should be provided for:
- Further program development, which despite approximately 79% of community radio being produced locally, funding hasn't been increased in a decade.
- Training development. The training development fund is recognised as a vital training ground for the broadcasting community.
- Infrastructure development & transmission access. Almost 200 new community radio licences have been made available since the last major government increase in funding, yet funding on a per station basis has fallen by more than 40%. Transmission costs have also risen since National Transmission Network was privatised in 1999.
COSTINGS
| Spending Initiates | 2004-05 |
| ABC Additional Spending initiatives |
| Core cost increases & local television production | 13 |
| Independent production | 11 |
| Digital broadband and multi-channelling | 6 |
| Radio service transmission | 18 |
| Paying out Shier-era debts | 12 |
| ABC Subtotal | $60m |
| SBS Additional Spending initiatives |
| SBS Radio | 8.8 |
| Innovation funding, strategic partnerships and broadband development 1.2 |
| SBS Independent | 2.0 |
| SBS Subtotal | $12m |
| Community broadcasting Additional Spending initiatives |
| Programming | 3.0 |
| Training, Infrastructure development & transmission access 6.0 |
| Community Broadcasting Subtotal | $9m |
| Total Additional funding | $81m</td> |
