(Transcript from World News Radio)
The former chairman of SBS says both of Australia's public broadcasters are being run efficiently and there are no massive savings to be found in their operating budgets.
Joe Skrzynski spent the past four years as SBS chairman and says both the SBS and ABC are well-regarded by Australians and play an essential role in maintaining an informed democracy.
His endorsement in a speech to the National Press Club comes as the federal government refuses to rule out cuts in the May budget.
Greg Dyett has the details.
(Click on audio tab above to listen to this item)
Pre-budget speculation by Fairfax Media suggests Prime Minister Tony Abbott is about to abandon this promise made on the eve of last year's federal election in an interview with SBS news presenter Anton Enus.
"(Anton) Are the ABC and SBS in the firing line? (Abbott) I trust everyone actually listened to what Joe Hockey has said last week and again this week. No cuts to education, no cuts to health, no change to pensions, no change to the GST and no cuts to the ABC or SBS."
Fairfax claims one option the government is considering is the imposition on a so-called efficiency dividend which is an annual requirement on public sector agencies to make cuts.
At present the ABC, the SBS and Safe Work Australia are the only three government-funded agencies that are exempt from the efficiency dividend.
Both broadcasters have just been subjected to an efficiency review and that's due to be completed this month.
In a speech to the National Press Club, the former SBS chairman Joe Skrzynski says there are no massive savings to be found in the operating budgets of either broadcaster and, in the case of SBS, no argument for even modest cuts.
During his tenure at SBS, the former chairman helped the broadcaster to secure the largest funding increase in its history.
But he told the Press Club recent funding increases for SBS and the ABC must be kept in perspective.
Over the past six years, he says, both have increased their output well beyond any increases in their funding.
He pointed to the launch of four new digital multi-channels and what he called industry-leading website services without any additional funding for their content.
"In Australian terms, on a cost-per-viewer basis, SBS is less than the average cost of a commercial (station) in cost per viewer, and the ABC is roughly comparable with the cost structure -- on a cost-per-viewer basis -- of commercial television stations. I make these observations to temper any expectations that there are massive cost efficiencies to be found in the local operating budgets of the public broadcasters and certainly not even modest ones at SBS."
Properly-funded public broadcasters, he says, are essential if there's to be an informed democracy.
"I believe that an informed democracy is in the national interest and therefore it's a clear necessity to not only have public broadcasters but for them to be properly funded and available on all media platforms. The flipside of that, of course, is that there's a great responsibility on public broadcasters to be true to their charters. They have to be independent, they have to be accurate and they have to be balanced and they have to reach out to all Australians."
As for criticism about some recent ABC reporting, Mr Skrzynski points out that politicians from both major parties have a long history of taking issue with taxpayer-funded journalists.
"The antipathy that the ABC is currently enjoying in certain political circles is no novelty. It was there during the Hawke-Keating government, it was there during the Howard government, it goes with the patch of doing your job as a serious journalist."
Joe Skrzynski says the ABC and SBS have done a great job in the eyes of ordinary Australians even though from time to time there may be mis-steps.
"Surveys have consistently shown that 9 out of 10 Australians rate the ABC and SBS as providing valuable services. Surveys show Australians trust the ABC and SBS far more than they trust commercial TV and radio, 60 per cent more trustworthy in a recent Newspoll survey."
The former SBS chairman says 18 million Australians watch or listen to the ABC each month - 12.5 million in the case of SBS.
He says merging the two broadcasters is a bad idea that should be considered a non-starter.
Mr Skrzynski says the ABC and SBS have vastly different business models and a merger would result in what he called an unwieldly conglomerate where ABC culture would prevail simply because it's four times larger than SBS.
He says any merger would actually result in SBS becoming more expensive to run within a few years.
Mr Skrzynski says a merger would not be politically wise either when it comes to attracting votes from members of Australia's migrant communities.
"That vote, the migrant vote is now moving around between the major parties and it's a decisive swing vote in many seats. Both major parties are now focused on winning that vote. Subsuming SBS into the ABC would be very unpopular. I believe it would be politically foolhardy to alienate the migrant vote and spend more money in doing so. A lose-lose idea. So, in summary I strongly believe that a merger of SBS and the ABC is wrong in principle, bad economics and even worse politics."
