The govt we have is playing the person rather than the channel. Abbott would be far more comfortable being interviewed by Clive Palmer, rather than ABC interviewers, they are far to experienced for the bumbling Abbott. He can’t find the words to express himself at an interview or overseas. Once he is out of sight of Credlin he is dumfounded. A skill called public speaking is missing.
Hence; the attack on the ABC which he promised not to touch.

sell it. It is a national disgrace.

A 5% cut over 5 years.......degrading the ABC. you MUST be kidding

The ABC is a massive anti-Liberal propaganda machine. How can the Liberals possibly hand over a billion dollars a year to an organization that relentlessly campaigns against them?

If the Liberals want to survive as a political force they need to finally get the courage to do something about the ABC.

There is absolutely no justification for spending tax payers money on a massive taxpayer funded media hegemon. How much would Fairfax love to have a billion dollars to spend each year? The ABC is crowding out and killing a private business. What a disaster.

The biggest threat to Democracy in Australia is the Left wing media. The Liberals will not last as the responsible arm of our political system if Labour spends like there is no tomorrow and then the Liberals only last one term because they try to clean up the mess. Eventually the Liberals will have to take the same path as the Republicans in the US and allow a massive deficit to build up. Labour is trashing our political system and the 'salarymen' of the inner city media class are a big part of the problem.

These are people who have never run a business or had to worry about actually making money. For them it is always other peoples money they spend.

How about we make a similar system to the UK. We could pay for the ABC by voluntary TV tax. Supporters of the ABC would be welcome to pay the tax and others who regard it as a danger to democracy would be able to opt-out. User pays.

Remember how the ABC resisted having their employees' exorbitant salaries revealed? Why? because their corporate mythology as average, hard working public servants who were protecting the common man from the "big end of town" would be revealed for what it is - a complete sham. They are the big end of town.

Now they are bleating about their first small cut in 20 years as if it is an attack on the people and "democracy". Well, let me remind them they don't represent "the people" because only 30% voted for their overlords, the Labor Party, in the last Federal elections.

Nor is the ABC democratic or even handed, with an inbuilt hatred of the US Republicans, who they always paint as right wing extremists and of course the Liberal Party who, according to the ABC/Labor Party mantra is determined to take money from the poor average guy and give it to big business. Ever heard them praise any Liberal Party figure like they swooned and frothed over Gough Whitlam and Barack Obama? Ever heard a serious criticism of Obama pass their lips? Ever heard them interview a prominent US Conservative figure without trying to portray them as a dangerous extremist or just plain stupid?

What a charmed life they lead. Some on salaries of $250k plus yet not having to compete in the open market like the other media while prosecuting their lefty ideology to their hearts content, drumming up support for their political buddies and securing a cosy future for themselves.

The ABC & SBS do have programmes that are far better than the rubbish that is on commercial channels, if viewers want endless advertising then for goodness sake watch them only, remember we buy daily the rantings of the right wing Murdoch papers and accept their reporting. An idiot who brings back snobbery English titles and couldn't run a chook raffle properly, paying wealthy women to get on the gravy train by having babies with work ethics, (stay home and look after them for no reward) excels in telling lies, the debt growing bigger daily etc, perhaps you one eyed liberal voters don't want to hear these things and blame left reporting, true reporting is what we want to hear whether left or right on what ever channel we tune into, but it is far from that at present.