Tony Jones blunt slapdown on Q&A
Q&A host Tony Jones and Liberal Senator Linda Reynolds didn’t hold back in a fiery on-air spat about the future funding of the ABC.
Their exchange began when a member of the audience asked how an initiative, supported by some in the Liberal party to privatise the public broadcaster at a conference on the weekend, could be beneficial to the Australian public.
“Why do you think this is a beneficial decision when the ABC is the most trusted news source and broadcasting corporation in Australia?” the audience member asked. “If it was privatised, how would you guarantee its independence?”
Senator Reynolds responded to the question by saying that Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had “made it very clear” the ABC won’t be privatised.
“I was there at the conference over the weekend and I heard the debate on the motion and, from my perspective, I think it’s not so much about privatising the ABC which is not going to happen, but $1.2 billion of your taxpayers’ money goes into the ABC every year.
“I think it’s valid for us in Parliament and for all of you to actually question whether that money is being best spent.
“So, for example, I’m from the state of Western Australia and I hear frequently from people in rural and regional areas in Western Australia that they don’t feel that they get enough service from the ABC.”
She then turned to Mr Jones and challenged Q&A to visit Western Australia, which she claimed they hadn’t done in “about six or seven years”.
“You might have to increase our funding just a little bit, Linda,” Mr Jones replied. “That’s one of the problems, I’m afraid.”
The audience erupted into laughter and cheers at his quick response as the senator continued to probe the host.
“I think in $1.2 billion you can find a few dollars,” she said.
However, Mr Jones replied saying that there were many services the organisation had to cover.
“We’d love to do that, so write to the managing director and see if they can find the money in the diminishing budget,” he said.
“Come to Port Hedland and the Pilbara and where 40 per cent of our nation’s wealth has been generated and probably 40 per cent of your salary comes from Western Australia,” Senator Reynolds said in one last jab at Mr Jones.
On Saturday, the Liberal federal council passed a motion with a two-to-one majority to call on the coalition to sell off the ABC, except in regional areas.
However, the following day, Malcolm Turnbull said the ABC will always be in public hands, after members of the Liberal Party voted to sell it off.
“The ABC will always be in public hands. It will never be sold. That is my commitment. It is a public broadcaster. It always has been and it always will be,” Mr Turnbull told reporters in Canberra.
On Q&A, the other panellists were largely supportive of the ABC remaining publicly funded.
“The motion we saw at the Liberal Party Federal Council on the weekend, it’s not an isolated incident,” said Tim Watts, a Labor member for the western Melbourne seat of Gellibrand.
“Five Liberal Party senators have spoken in favour of privatising the ABC before.
“It sounds insane. It sounds like a crazy idea, but this is the mainstream of the modern Liberal Party.
“There was a time when conservatives cared about institutions. They cared about the things that we needed to sustain a democracy. Now it’s just off-the-shelf ideology from America.”
Senator Reynolds responded by saying the claim that the Coalition’s ideology comes from America “doesn’t make sense”, adding that the ABC plays a “really important role”.
“But that said, it is still publicly funded,” she added. “What we want to do is, like we do with any other organisation that’s publicly funded, is keep challenging it to make sure it is still serving the purposes for which we fund it and for which we require.”
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