Free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs has called on the Morrison Government to rule out giving more taxpayer dollars to the ABC that already receives over $1.1 billion per year.
New polling data collected by Dynata, undertaken and commissioned by the IPA asked Australians to agree or disagree with the statement “The ABC does not represent the views of ordinary Australians.”
- 30% agree
- 32% disagree
- 38% neither agree nor disagree
“If only 32% of Australians think the ABC speaks for them, then it is clear public broadcasting has passed its use-by date,” said Gideon Rozner, Director of Policy at the IPA.
“33% of 18-24 year olds believe the ABC does not represent the views of ordinary Australians, only 21% disagree. This suggests that young people are optimistic, ambitious and patriotic. They are not interested in programming awash with negativity, black armband history and climate hysteria,” said Mr Rozner.
This poll represents the launch of a new research stream at the IPA, highlighting ABC bias, and making the positive case for privatisation of ABC.
“Rethinking state ownership is not an ‘attack’ on the ABC, any more than privatisation was an attack on Qantas or Telstra, both of which have thrived since privatisation,” said Mr Rozner.
“If the ABC is as good as its staff say it is, then it has nothing to fear from privatisation.”
“The ABC seems to be playing to its loyal base in an era of audience fragmentation. It’s understandable, but let’s not maintain the fiction of a ‘national broadcaster’.”
“The ABC is not the only media outlet that has some sort of bias, far from it, but it is the only media outlet that every taxpayer is forced to pay for.”
The IPA disputes the argument by ABC staff that it needs more taxpayer dollars because of its role as the emergency broadcaster given the recent bushfires.
“This argument by the ABC is an admission of failure, that despite receiving over $1.1 billion dollars of taxpayer dollars per year, it is unable to fulfil its most basic duty within that generous allocation. The Morrison Government should run a competitive tender between the commercial networks for the emergency broadcasting function,” said Mr Rozner.
Download the polling document.
