The federal government helps the ABC too much already. And the last thing needed is the awful organisation disseminating false, left wing garbage about Australia to other countries.

My understanding is that the demise of the ABC's broadcasting into the Pacific reflected the decline of short wave radio broadcasting internationally because of the rise of the internet. Short wave radio suffered from poor quality audio while internet radio is high quality.

I don't know how many people listen-in to the ABC overseas but I suspect that the numbers were never great in recent decades.

Peter Jennings of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute has brought attention to discussions between The Solomon Islands and China on China being allowed to set up military operations in the Solomons - 1,700kms from, and within missile range of our ADF establishment at Townsville. A direct threat to Australia! As Jennings says, we “cannot allow this to happen”.

Set the ABC on them?

The Solomons, with a population of a mere million, is totally dependent on foreign aid. “Quick and firm decisive action from the Australian governments is needed”.

Is the Australian government up to it?

Mr. Wall would agree with Jennings that the Australian Government is partly to blame for this new threat because of its under-investment in the Pacific region.

Jennings concluded that Australia itself should have a military presence in the Solomons - not just the occasional visit when the government there cannot manage.

I agree!
Alan B.

The internet is not widely available in the Pacific. But almost everyone can afford a radio!

We need our voice and our influence to expand along with the trusted info we used to provide! Vacating the field has only allowed China in!

And forget the garbage that Pro-China activists promote, that the ABC is a left wing organization spreading left wing filth.

When in fact it's a trusted moderate centre leaning broadcaster that speaks to the moderate middle and promulgates the verified and validated facts!
Alan B.

The Labor/ Green ABC is a complete disgrace & should be completely defunded

Long live the ABC. The only radio worth listening to.

Leaflet dropping from a B52 would be more useful and less culturally damaging.

Palm trees draped in rainbow flags doesn’t sound like a good idea.

Dan.

Palm trees draped in rainbow flags doesn’t sound like a good idea.
diver dan,
Agree !

I would consider a palm tree draped in a rainbow flag as imposing the same humiliation to native Samoans as does a rainbow projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera house to a Christian.

Tantamount to a swastika projected onto the walls of a synagogue I would think.

I’m sure the ABC would chip away relentlessly at any opposition to the scenario, disguising their objective in news bulletins featuring the Gay Mardi Gras for months on end.

All legitimately neutral of course. Who would dare object?

Dan

We might as well fund anarchists also !

Now the juvenile Chinese foreign minister or equivalent has called Australia "irresponsible" for being concerned about the threat their presence in the Solomons represents to Australia. There is no dealing in any normal way with people like that.

Appropriately, the new Chinese ambassador has been denied an audience with the PM.

When our trusted Aunty was the trusted voice across the Pacific, no rainbow flags came with it! And should that shortwave service be resumed or even digitized, no rainbow flags would be draped over palm trees!

The only rainbow flags that exist are in the minds of bigots and fools who spread their diseased thinking, Dan, among the extremely gullible.

Who would believe the world is flat, if Dan said so. And all the water is running over the edges, never to return, given a flat world can not retain water. Or that one can escape from the asylum by sliding down a beam of light?
Alan B.

Dear good O’l Al.

You seem always to fall towards invective language when responding to ideas or comment divergent from your own views and theories.

To the contrary is my response towards your views, which I’ve often indicated my inclination towards agreement with: Not the whole stable of them though.

Obviously, to myself anyway, the modern day ABC is not a patch on the credible service it once was.
There was a time when the ABC was universally accepted and acceptable; but Al, those days are long gone, and what we are presented with now is simply unacceptable.

Not only unacceptable to sense but quite frankly unacceptable to sensibility. It cannot be denied the ABC was and increasingly is, (if that’s even possible), the public voice of a totally unacceptable new cultural view of Australia, of which gay rights features high up it’s priority list.

I’m personally disgusted with it and will happily ridicule its existence until it or I disappear.

And Al, there is no gay gene. Get over it!

Dan

I remember the ABC broadcasts from when I was cruising the Solomons. I couldn't get anything in the far north west of the chain, but did get a couple of hours from about 6.00 AM to about 8 further down.

I remember the riveting session where I was given the prices attained at the latest cattle sales & other such. I don't know if there was ever anything of interest to the locals later in the day, as I could never receive it.

I had a very good receiver, as I needed to be able to pick up the time signals from Hawaii & the US west coast, to enable my navigation in those days before sat nav was available at prices a yachty could afford. Accurate Greenwich Mean Time is critical when reducing sun or star sights.

Incidentally, the Solomons, & Boguainville Island earlier are a perfect example of what happens in the Balkans. While people from different islands in the countries had real difficulty getting at each other it was reasonably peaceful. Now improved transport has led to populations from different islands congregating in the larger towns we have civil war