Foxy,

The main reason for governments to fund organisations is so that they can provide something that would not be provided otherwise. This may have been true when the ABC started and was the only broadcasting company, but is certainly not true today.

Objective reporting is important, however, by the measures that Alan Sunderland lays down in his article, no one is entirely objective including the ABC. The independent news agencies have particular biases with some more journalists leaning one way or the other. Newscorp leans to the conservative, and Fairfax leans to the left. The ABC which is entirely publicly funded leans further left even than Fairfax through its opinion pieces and selection of articles to cover or ignore.

The ABC should be privatised and compete in the real world.

Dear Shadow Minister,

You have a right to your opinion.

And I have the right to disagree with it.

Cheers.

Not only does the ABC duplicate FREE services that are already available from a diverse range of providers local, national and international providers,

BUT,

the ABC also duplicates the SBS.

"Mark Scott has used his final major speech as ABC managing director to ramp up the case for the ABC to merge with SBS, saying it would save taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year and stop the broadcasters "tripping over each other".

Mr Scott, who departs the ABC in May, revealed he and former SBS managing director Shaun Brown had secretly agreed there should be a "friendly merger" between the two broadcasters and were prepared to make the case to government. Under one scenario discussed, Mr Scott would have been managing director of the merged organisation while the then chairman of SBS, Joseph Skrzynski, would have been the chair."
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/mark-scotts-big-bang-goodbye-time-for-grown-up-conversation-on-abcsbs-merger-20160224-gn23gv.html

- Expensive duplication and it is only the highly paid sinecures available to the favoured that stymie overdue change and savings.

Put the money into public hospitals to shorten waiting lists. Or into extending free public vaccinations, for example, whooping cough.

Foxy,

You have the right to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

Quote "The ABC should be privatised and compete in the real world."

They could not compete for add revenue with the repeated programs and mostly rubbish that has very low viewer ratings.

The purchase price would be cents on the dollar, then like all other privatized entities the purchaser would make lots of money by running it properly.

Dear Shadow Minister,

I totally agree.

That is why being informed and not just opinionated
is so important in a democracy.

If you only read newspapers that pander to your
political leanings then -
of course your views on the ABC are understandable.

The ABC is crucial because we are poorly served by
other parts of the media. Too often problems become
politicised, the science is discarded and rational
debate and decision making go out the window.

I've noticed that people critical of the ABC refer to it
as "the taxpayer-funded ABC". It is interesting to note
that the most recent independent Newspoll showed an
extra-ordinary level of support and enthusiasm for our
national broadcaster. That over 84% of Australians
believe that the national broadcaster provides a valuable
service to the community.

Voters need to be informed about issues complex in their
causation. Issues having major impacts on people and nations.
Issues that are costly and difficult to manage. Issues that
demand whole government responses.

Voters need to be informed about these issues to support
appropriate political and whole government policy solutions.

Australian voters depend upon the public broadcaster to present
the issues and the science in critical and clear ways so that
the voters can make the best decisions and help our
politicians and bureaucrats to do the same - spending taxpayer's
funds on policies and solutions that work for the good of the
country now and in the future.