Rather than the Press that the ABC is being 'threatened' the news reports should instead be insisting that government be accountable and always demonstrate value for (taxpayers') money is always being obtained.

One's politics shouldn't come into this. It is simply a case of government always avoiding open and direct consultation with the public on its priorities for expending the funds taken compulsorily for the public. There is also a lack of discipline: even where grudgingly stated, the goals of governmental programs are deliberately broad and wooly and public agencies continually avoid any real measurement of outcomes, which is necessary for accountability.

Public agencies and particularly quasi-autonomous agencies 'quangos' like the ABC once established are very murky about their goals and measurable outcomes, preferring broad 'motherhood' statements instead. Yet they do siphon considerable funds from the federal (and States) tax bucket.

If the ABC wants money it should be required annually to put forward the sort of business case that any subsidiary of a private company is routinely required to submit. Instead, its well paid senior managers have unassailable positions that amount to sinecures and they can easily avoid anything but superficial scrutiny and accountability. That is simply not good enough. It is arrogance, insensitivity and casualness (damned cowards for not being accountable, many private business people would say) at a time when both sides of government are telling the public that there is no money for the fundamental purposes for which government was established in the first place.