UNRWA, the United Nations Palestinian refugee relief agency, has faced severe funding cuts after Israel dubiously accused the organization of ties to Hamas. We spoke with a director of UNRWA in Jordan about the impact of the cuts.
Tag: Cuts
Morrison introduced the “efficiency dividend” a $1Bn cut to the ABC almost a decade ago when “No cuts” to the ABC were a promised LNP policy. That promise isn’t even an Oxymoron its a simple straight-out lie and a 1000 cuts were always planned. The “efficiency dividend” was a funding cut by another name. But it’s an illegal one at that and goes against the intended grain of the ABC as a legally constituted Independent Statutory Body, not one to be interfered with by any government let alone abused, as has been the case by the series of LNP governments this past decade. In effect neutering the constitutionally formulated body and our Democracy one and the same time. Yes the LNP has taxed us by stealth all these years at a greater rate than the ALP.
The government will increase the efficiency dividend, which cuts public sector spending, to 2 per cent The Coalition says the move will raise $2 billion in revenue Labor will release its policy costings on Thursday
Source: Cuts to public sector spending underpin Coalition’s forecast budget improvement – ABC News
How polite is Kevin Rudd? In simply calling this an “overcorrection” when It’s been a slow assassination by stealth to the tune of $1bn. In the LNP decade, the ABC’s budget has been reduced in real terms to that of 1984 when Australia’s population was only 15-16 million.
Under the Coalition, the national broadcaster has been domesticated to the point of overcorrecting for perceived partisanship
Hefty cuts to income support mean that Australia now faces a potentially more deadly epidemic than Covid-19. But it is largely avoidable, writes Michael Tanner.
Cuts to JobSeeker, Jobkeeper: out of the frying pan and into the fire – Michael West
LNP have been slashing the ABC funding for the past 6 years never promised at an election and always called something other than what it is. Death of the ABC will be the death of Democracy in Australia and the growth of Murdoch media whose profits are heavily entrenched supporting those that will have the money to pay at elections. $90 million vs $18 million tells the tale of modern politics and the media. A David and Goliath tale where Goliath has had his achillies cut and tongue cut out. (ODT)
Key points:
Mr Anderson did not say how many staff or from where in the ABC the jobs would be cut
He told Senate Estimates consideration would be given to keeping regional and remote jobs
The Government has frozen the ABC’s budget for three years, at a cost of $83.7 million
Savage budget cuts to the ABC would mean not only axing some television and radio programs but potentially reducing the number of ABC television channels, managing director Mark Scott said on Tuesday.
Scott told ABC radio in Melbourne that the impact on programs depended on how big the cuts were and, just as critically, when the cuts came into effect. He said coverage of local sport was under scrutiny and he confirmed that local versions of 7.30 were also being looked at.
“If the government cuts money this financial year or next financial year we would have to cut some commissioning of some of our television services [and] radio, and if the cuts were too dramatic we’d have to look at how many channels we’re offering,” he said.
The ABC currently runs five channels: ABC, ABC2, ABC3, ABC News24 and iView. It is believed ABC2, an edgier channel launched in 2005, would be most vulnerable.
Scott’s remarks follow a defiant speech on Monday night, in which he expressed frustration that five months after the May budget, the national broadcaster still did not know what cuts it was facing.
The ABC’s funding was cut by 1% in the budget – or about $120m over four years – which was described as a “down payment” for more savings yet to be announced.
The government’s expenditure review committee is expected to decide on ABC cuts in mid-November. During last year’s election campaign, the Coalition ruled out any cuts to the ABC.
Scott made clear that the ABC would continue to invest heavily in new online and digital services, even if the government made deep cuts and despite organisations such as News Corp arguing it should limits its online expansion because it harmed for-profit providers.
Scott said that in the past, the ABC had found efficiencies which were used to fund innovations such as the catch-up service iView. But if the government essentially pocketed any further savings, the ABC would cut TV and radio programs to continue to invest in digital offerings, because that’s what modern audiences demanded.
Scott was cautious about which programs were vulnerable, saying the ABC was looking at “where we may overservice or we spend a lot of money and the audience is tiny”. Programs mooted include Lateline, local editions of 7.30 and radio programs such as the World Today.
Asked whether the ABC should be covering live women’s soccer, for example, he said local sport “would be hard for us to do” with significant budget cuts.
He also made clear that state-based editions of 7.30. which run on Friday nights, are also likely to change.
“I can’t rule anything in or out, we do have to have everything on the table,” he said.
“Whether it [local television current affairs] can only be delivered in that program or there are other ways we can deliver that, that’s something we are looking at now.”
Answering questions from the audience on Monday night, Scott said there was no guarantee that existing media organisations would manage the dramatic transition underway, and new players often had little concern with public interest beyond their “narrow commercial interests”. This made maintaining funding to the ABC vital.
“That’s a very conservative, sensible thing to do. Why would you weaken the ABC at a time when the rest of the media is in turmoil?”
olddogthoughts 