While the Victorian Liberal party is putting the pressure on the federal opposition to privatise SBS and ABC, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has pleged he won’t make the move.
“We have no intention of going down that path, and we won’t go down that path,” Mr Abbott said.
This weekend, the Victorian Liberal Party will vote on a motion at their state conference this weekend that says the original arguments in favour of public ownership are no longer valid.
The ABC and SBS are paid for by the Government and taxpayers and have a specific charter that they have to adhere to.
Institute of Public Affairs (IPA)’s Dr Julie Novak says high-quality programming does comes from not having to focus solely on audience numbers like commercial networks.
“There are willing customers who’d be prepared to pay for quality programming, so why not? I mean, the fact of the matter is that, you know, at the moment, we have taxpayers, including those taxpayers who choose not to watch or listen to the ABC or SBS, basically forced to pay for the product,” she told SBS.
With one in four people born overseas, SBS says it is delivering on its charter to offer multicultural and multilingual content to inform, educate and entertain all Australians more than ever.
It says it has paid for itself many times over in the past three decades with its contribution to society and says demand for its services will keep growing as Australia gets more diverse.