- Target:
- To the President and members of the Senate
- Region:
- Australia
The ABC is a taxpayer funded organisation and as such must provide value to the community that supports it. Going by its output in recent times, I don't believe the ABC is meeting its obligations to the taxpayer. To determine a corrective path, a review into the following needs to be conducted:
1) The Australian Broadcasting Corporations Act 1983 to determine whether it's adequate in today’s advancing technology and to strengthen the ABC's charter to remove any ambiguity;
2) The ABC’s expanding media and online presence and whether this is making it impossible for independent media to compete;
3) Whether the ABC is suitably servicing the contract to run the Australia Network given recent events when it chose to promote the Guardian spying allegations story involving Indonesia. Considering The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade described the service as "enhancing the government's ability to pursue its broader foreign and trade policy objectives". With the objective of the network being: ‘To project a positive and contemporary image of Australia and promote a clear understanding of government policies’.
4) Whether the ABC board including the Chairman is abiding by the charter: Point 8, Duties of the board, with particular attention to a, b, c, d, which clearly states the duties being :
(1) It is the duty of the Board:
(a) to ensure that the functions of the Corporation are performed efficiently and with the maximum benefit to the people of Australia;
(b) to maintain the independence and integrity of the Corporation;
(c) to ensure that the gathering and presentation by the Corporation of news and information is accurate and impartial according to the recognized standards of objective journalism; and
(d) to ensure that the Corporation does not contravene, or fail to comply with:
(i) any of the provisions of this Act or any other Act that are applicable to the Corporation; or
5) Whether the Managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott, conducted himself appropriately when he decided to promote the Guardian’s spy allegations. Especially since it has emerged that the ABC refused requests from intelligence agencies to redact the material in the interests of national security’.
To the President and members of the Senate
We the undersigned request that the Senate:
1) Conducts a complete review into the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Act 1983 and strengthens the ABC's charter to remove any ambiguity;
2) Evaluates whether the ABC with its expanding media and online presence is making it impossible for independent media to compete;
3) Evaluates whether the ABC is suitably servicing the contract to run the Australia Network;
4) Reviews whether the ABC board including the Chairman is abiding by the charter;
5) Evaluates whether the Managing director of the ABC, Mark Scott, conducted himself appropriately when he decided to promote the Guardian’s spy allegations. Especially since it has emerged that the ABC refused requests from intelligence agencies to redact the material in the interests of national security.
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The Review of the ABC petition to To the President and members of the Senate was written by Cathy Accardo and is in the category Politics at GoPetition.