Ballarat ABC Friends, disturbed by years of ongoing funding cuts and political attacks on our national broadcaster, and afraid for the future of small regional news media outlets, have lodged a submission to the current 'Senate Inquiry into Media Diversity'

The Senate Inquiry takes place at a time of instability in the Australian media landscape and of crisis for public interest journalism. A crisis for public interest journalism is a threat to democracy.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's [ACCC] Inquiry into Digital Platforms 2019 advises that democracy needs a diverse range of public interest news outlets, including a well-funded public broadcaster. The Government's response, News Media Bargaining Code, favours the existing media giants and leaves smaller news outlets vulnerable.

Ballarat ABC Friends recommendations to the Senate Inquiry are focused on protecting and strengthening our ABC, particularly in rural and regional centres, and on maintaining a viable, diverse commercial public interest media in rural and regional centres. Ballarat ABC Friends agree with the ACCC that a strong, independent, diverse media is an essential component of democracy.

The ABC has a lifesaving role during crises such as fire, flood and the current pandemic. The demand for this emergency service will increase but cuts in funding will make it difficult to meet this crucial public need.

Since 2014, when then Prime Minister [PM] Tony Abbott reassured Australians that there would be no cuts to the ABC, the public broadcaster's budget has been cut by hundreds of millions of dollars and over a thousand jobs have been lost.

Then PM Tony Abbott was at the time also a member of the Institute of Public Affairs [IPA] and is now employed by the IPA, whose policy calls for the privatisation of the ABC. According to National ABC Friends 2020 briefing both the current Prime Minister and Treasurer are IPA members. The Minister for Communication and the Arts, who has ministerial responsibility for the ABC, is listed as a member of the Sydney Institute, formerly the NSW branch of the IPA. This apparently divided allegiance may help to explain the slashing of the ABC budget and government directed attacks.

In 2018 the Liberal Party's peak federal council voted by a two thirds majority to call on the government to privatise the ABC. Federal Cabinet members hastily rejected the appeal as "total madness", perhaps afraid of voter backlash. Still the threat is there to be acted on if the opportunity arises.

Commercial news media's viability probably began to decline in the 1990s with loss of income to on-line advertising but accelerated rapidly when Google and Facebook became available. Since then it has lost thousands of jobs, hitting rural and regional coverage particularly hard. According to the ACCC 2019 Inquiry there have been, since 2005, a 26% reduction in articles on local government, 40% reduction on coverage of local courts and 30% less coverage on health matters across media platforms in rural and regional centres.

The recent News Media Bargaining Code, designed to restore commercial media viability and strengthen public interest journalism, favours the dominant media corporations. The more powerful, like News Corp and Nine Entertainment, can negotiate from strength. Small rural, regional, and independent news media outlets are powerless against the bargaining position of the corporate giants, Google and Facebook. Some of them may even be excluded from bargaining at all.

Rod Sims of ACCC told Fran Kelly's Radio National listeners that it was the responsibility of the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to ensure small players are treated fairly. It might be wise for regional communities to keep the Treasurer's focus on the regional outlets.

As far as the ABC is engaged in negotiations with digital platforms Ballarat ABC Friends recommends that any revenue generated from ABC content be quarantined and independently administered to support a diversity of public interest journalism, in part at least, for regional news media. There should be no direct financial return to the ABC so as to avoid any opening to make the ABC other than a publicly owned and government funded public broadcaster.

Regional, municipal and state politics and analysis used to be covered by ABC's Stateline before it was slashed. Without Stateline, depleted commercial outlets struggle to monitor and scrutinise local governments and institutions to keep regional citizens informed. The recent dismissals, forced resignations, and Council controversy at the City of Ballarat highlight the need for more, not less, investigative journalism to hold local governments to account. For this the ABC needs funding restored and rural commercial outlets need a fair go from government and digital platforms.

While negotiations are taking place with digital platforms, "Save Our Voices", Prime, WIN, Southern Cross and Imparja, is campaigning for regulation change to allow regional amalgamation of media organisations. If the campaign is successful the likely outcome will be rationalisation and loss of jobs and diversity as small regional outlets are swallowed by the more powerful corporations. We note that Australian Community Media, which owns the Ballarat Courier, supports this campaign.

But the danger is some Ballarat media outlets, including the Ballarat Courier, may not survive the cuts and redundancies of an amalgamated regional media. ACM has already closed its Ballarat printing press at the cost of 134 jobs.

While there is a universal understanding that the media is vital for democracy, the Australian government must also recognise the importance of diversity and protect small media outlets, particularly in the non-urban regions. The Australian media is more than just a commercial enterprise. It is vital to democracy and cannot be left to market forces alone.

Ballarat ABC Friends key recommendations to the Senate Inquiry into Media Diversity are for the restoration of ABC funding and the cessation of political attacks, and for regulatory protection of small regional news outlets and, if necessary, some kind of revenue protection, perhaps along the lines of Job Keeper.

For information about ABC Friends Ballarat contact: Maureen Mac Phail. 0476247870. mlt.macphail@gmail.com

David McPhail is a member of Ballarat friends of ABC