ABC managing director’s full statement to staff over cuts

Fascinating. It would appear that Scott has done two things: 1) he follows the brief from the review ordered by Turnbull; 2) he has scroed a few cheap shots to ensure that the political cost of the cuts is felt by the Government.
What Scott did not do is take the opportunity presented to him, which was to nail the decrepit organisational culture and structure and envigorate ABC creative output.
The most obvious sign of Scott’s weakness and lack of energy is in the weasel words around the management structure. He “proposes” to change the State management arrangement. But he does not embrace the potential to sharply reduce the total overhead and do what he says he is doing: use contemporary processes and technology for better ways to work.
The best cost saving not delivered is Scott’s own role.

I see the Liberal Party social media division is out in force today. Do you get paid per comment?

Of course these efficency budget cuts that the Abbott government wants is about unplugging the ABC from public ownership. Like other public institutions that have been progressively sold off for free market ownership. This is neither progressive nor a mandate from the last election. Its also a hope that it will work not a guarantee. This is an aggressive finance gathering exercise by a government that will pork barrel the next pre-election projects. Abbott/Hockey would call it prudent savings measures. But no one actually knows the final outcome; and its fools premise to believe what you see and hear will make the ABC stronger. Even Abbotts cabinate Ministers don’t want to take the blame for their leaders myopathy. Its a sad time when govt investment is reduced forcing redundancies upon a work force, communities/families and our reputation. This like all other politically embarrassing mishaps which are occurring all too often. Abbott maybe needs shirt fronting himself. Anyway I just wanted a say. I love the ABC and hope the cricket isnt impacted.

@Birdman: No.
@BruceDrummond: No way the Libs would privatise. The TV owners would go berserk if the ABC had ads.
And on the question of impacts I invite you both to look carefully at what is proposed. Then – if you actually know anyone who works there – ask whether any real damage is being done and whether it will likely still leave plenty of comfortable paper-shuffling.

@BruceDRummond: I see Kate Torney said that maybe 100 editorial jobs might go in the redundancies and 70 new ones would be added with the new digital budget. In other words, a net 30.
My guess is that management will be aiming to get rid of some people. Sadly, the biggest payouts are usually reserved for the mates’ mates.

Huh? 1:39pm. I did on the weekend before the cuts were announced. Yes is the answer you are getting but not seeking.

A good example of Scott trying to extract maximum pain for the Government without too much gain for the ABC is the decision to cut their Saturday Rugby coverage. The ABC is actually paid to cover these games by the ARU and has been for as long as I remember. So why would something with a real income stream be such a priority other than trying to just piss people off??

Tom G, truth be known Sydney’s weekend club rugby barely survived the chop the last time the broadcast rights were on the table. Part of the reason it survived was the diversity that the ABC charter has.

Someone with the ABC or ARU may know but there were stories going around that no-one else was willing to broadcast the Shute Shield at it may have been a freebie in the best interests of the sport. Even if there was a rights fee, OBs aren’t cheap, so it would have to have been a pretty hefty one (remember an OB cost is not correlated to either the crowd or the viewing audience).

Putting that to one side the average audience this year has been 40,000 people. That is hardly a compelling reason to keep it going when its audience is less than lots of kids shows. But that’s when the Charter’s diversity clause kicks in, but programmes can only be saved under that clause for so long.

So your contention of maximum pain for the Government simply does not accord with the facts.

@WWE, you miss the point by ignoring one key fact. The ABC were actually being paid by the ARU to produce and broadcast it. Now I am not sure if that was going to change but to the best of my knowledge it has been the case for quite some time

I will do some more digging. It is EXTREMELY unusual for ANY sporting body to give away the rights AND pick up the production and broadcast costs.

But I would be more than pleased to stand corrected. Please post a link or similar of the ARU paying for production and broadcast costs.

They NSWRU paid $120k per year to offset the overall cost and received nothing for rights. There is an article elsewhere on this site.

Thanks Tom G.

So the Shute Shield coverage would have been an overall expense to the ABC as $120k doesn’t pay for much OB. In the game it’s called a ‘consideration’ – a token payment that partially contributes to the real cost.

Given that expense exceeded the income and the low audience numbers, Scott clearly made what would have been a difficult decision given the ABC’s long history with Australian rugby.

No I think an easy decision if you want to get people who are already passionate to get wound up. Forget viewing numbers, Rugby followers to a person whether they watched this coverage or not, will be extremely pissed off that further cuts are being made to grass roots. The ARU has just slashed its funding to clubs dramatically too so the timing is all too convenient

Voters overall whether they watch the ABC or not, are extremely pissed off that further cuts are being made to our national broadcaster. The Abbott government has slashed its funding to the ABC dramatically yet the absurd expectation was that no programming would be affected.

The leaked Lewis report, that will probably be front and centre of this week’s Senate Estimates Committee, despite being withheld by the Minister, should reveal the truth that programming cuts were inevitable – thus adding to long list of mistruths piling up on the altar of ideology.

BTW Tom G, the NSWRU offset payment represented 1% of 1% of ABC revenues. Basically it was less than a rounding error. To follow your logic, the Gulargambone Croquet Club could stump up a couple of grand and expect coverage. As if.

WWE I thank you for taking the time off from painting your placards.. oh by the way I could give i% of 1% of a a flying continental for your obvious political views

Phew Tom. I’ll reset my social compass to the same bearing as yours so as to avoid such withering criticism.

Oh, and I 3-D print them now.

At least the MD is trying to be transparent & accountable. They are hardly going to sack govt relations / the money-making branches. That would be pure stupidity. You can’t have more journalists than support services or you will go broke pretty quickly. You also can’t work in media these days & pretend digital doesn’t exist or pretend to understand it if you don’t. That’s how the likes of Fairfax etc went from being large companies to little ones. People in senior roles who should not have been & for far too long. Only difference is ABC relies on govt funding so all the more reason for tax payers to appreciate these changes sooner rather than later.