The ABC was created by an act of Parliament and it can be abolished by an act of Parliament if it does not live up to it's original charter of presenting a balanced reporting of the news.

I would not like to see the ABC abolished, but the time has come for the people's representatives to sack every member of the ABC board and replace them with people who are either even handed or at least represent a broad range of views. It is clear that the present board has become completely inbred with leftist ideology and that it is beyond redemption. Nothing less than a complete renewal will accomplish anything.

The ABC was needed when there were no independent stations. The argument that it should exist to provide services in Aboriginal languages etc now also falls flat, as independent stations provide better and cheaper services. The ABC's raison d'etre no longer exists, other than as another monument to nostalgia.

Selling this dinosaur would help pay off Labor's debt, and the $1bn it gets annually could be put towards education.

"The argument that it should exist to provide services in Aboriginal languages etc now also falls flat, as independent stations provide better and cheaper services"

Can't the National Indigenous Television channel NITV do that if and where needed? NITV seems to be government funded and linked to the SBS, also guvvy funded.

As a matter of fact there is so much guvvy funding being spread about that it is a wonder how government can ever afford the fundamentals it was set up to provide in the first place.

People bitch and moan about their 13 cents a day for the ABC but don't realise that the so-called "Free-to Air" costs them far more and are yet they are not accountable for their content.

Every product that is advertised includes a levy for that cost. Even a small percentage of your total expenditure is far greater than 13 cents per day and that's from consumers, not just from taxpayers.

Every government hates criticism but it's the paranoid conservatives that truly see it as conspiratorial.

Bias in the ABC but none from Murdoch and Fairfax?
Whitlam, Hawke, Wran, Keating Rudd and Gillard all had complaints about their ABC coverage too. Compared to the ALP coverage over the last few years Abbott was given a pretty free ride from the ABC and managed to avoid scrutiny, yet continues to do so.

Howard started to sabotage the ABC and Abbott will now try to finish the job and start the dismantling process.

Removing the free on-line content from the ABC will give the private media a leg-up to keep charging for theirs while keeping dissent out of public discussion. You'll have to pay to find out what they want you to think.

The big payoff will be seen when Murdoch gets awarded those rights to broadcast into Asia he was denied under Rudd.

Be afraid.

I guess the Conservatives won't be happy until every television channel shows a continuum of commercials combined with bits of movies and sport supplemented by mindless quiz shows.

People are already showing that, once fed this diet of fast moving 'intellectual pap' they can't sit down and watch serious debates or follow political discussion. As long as they see movement and hear lots of noise it doesn't matter what's on the screen!

The ABC and SBS are all that stands between us and total mindlessness!

Long may they reign.

Shadow Minister, I would sooner the many, many billions spent on unnecessary wars ,just to be sucking up to that country of creating wars, the USA, than a billion spent on the ABC which is chicken feed, your priorities are in the wrong place