Over 200 redundancies expected to sweep the ABC this month

Staff Writer
ABC chair Ita Buttrose & managing director David Anderson

Shrinking budgets for the government-funded ABC means about 250 jobs could be scrapped by the end of June, in a bid meet a $41 million annual shortfall.

The job losses will be spread across the ABC’s national news, entertainment, specialist and regional content divisions, according to Guardian Australia.

In an email to staffers on Tuesday (June 10), managing director David Anderson explained the budgetary woes and asked employees for expressions of interest for redundancy.

“The budget challenge presented to us by the indexation pause remains and we will also need to finalise savings initiatives to meet this challenge,” Anderson said.

“The budget gap of $41 million per annum means that, despite our best efforts, some of our services will be affected and, regrettably, there will be redundancies.

“We will provide more information about these changes when we share the five-year plan.”

The five-year plan for Aunty, that Anderson refers to, was originally scheduled for releases in March but was held back as the global pandemic hit.

“This has been an arduous year already for all of us and I’m conscious of how many of you must be feeling right now given the uncertainty across our industry and the broader economy,” he said.

The ABC has lost $783 million in government funding since the Coalition came to power in 2014, including the $84 million that was slashed in 2018.

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Dave
10 Jun 2020 - 9:00 am

triple J could be a lot leaner, low ratings, poor music selection, they should have live breakfast and drive and automate the rest – daytime and night / weekends. Save taxpayers money.

Rob
10 Jun 2020 - 9:35 am

Dave, the whole point of a public broadcaster is to serve their audience & abide by their charter. If you want to discuss ratings, Triple J is the highest rated ABC network over Newsradio, Radio National & Classic FM.

If you want to do a cull, I’m sure Newsradio & Radio National are far more resourced than the J’s.

Regardless of ratings, to strip the ABC of funding is political, nothing else.

ex ABC
10 Jun 2020 - 11:02 am

… the ABC could easily avoid many of these redundancies by going back to public service broadcasting first principles and cutting out all of the excessive contract salaries paid to many – particularly “specialist” reporters and autocue readers in the news department. The current Employment Agreement provides for a salary range (including super) of up to $145,000 a year which should be adequate for all the positions required. And the MD’s own salary is double that recommended by the Remuneration Tribunal and more than that paid to the Director-General of the BBC with over 35,000 staff … it’s totally absurd …

Ian
10 Jun 2020 - 12:10 pm

Ex ABC is right on the money.

The ABC is a huge rort, with its news & current affairs largely a mouth-piece for the extreme left, who seem to run the show without check or balance.

The hope by many was that Ita, with her commercial background, would get the ABC back to its charter of fairness, impartiality & balanced political comment – but not much evidence of that so far..

Radio listeners who want talk & substance rather than music, are left with the choice of ad saturation to the point of numbness & galloping egos, or political correctness taken to the nth degree.

So at least good to see some action in reducing the burden on the tax-payer. Of course, there will no doubt be all sorts of deals & sweeteners to ensure those winkled out are well ‘taken care of’…

Never-the-less, pity it’s 200 and not 2000.

Sam
10 Jun 2020 - 4:05 pm

Get rid of the latte sipping arts rubbish from the self indulgent Radio National and it’s staff of left leaning preachers first.

Ian
10 Jun 2020 - 9:11 pm

Yes Sam, I don’t mind where they start with the chain saw. The ABC is a comfortable club of (mostly) left wing ‘intellectuals’ living high on the hog at tax-payers’ expense.

Come on Ita, FIX IT! Isn’t that your brief? Hardly heard a word from you since you took over the plum job. Laurels, resting on, are we?

P.S. Can we know salaries paid to ABC Presenters & Executives? ( and total cost of individual programs to air). I mean, they are public servants totally dependent on tax-payer input, aren’t they, so surely no secret? It is our money.

I know how much the PM is paid, so why not those in the ABC?

Shock us.

Simon
11 Jun 2020 - 1:45 am

Ian, ABC News is “extreme left”? Hahahaha! Just keep getting your ‘news’ from Sky News and Nine Radio because you clearly don’t know what you’re writing about.

Richard
11 Jun 2020 - 7:57 am

We don’t need triple J anymore now, we have Spotify and iTunes so it’s largely irrelevant get rid of it, save us all some money.

Ian
11 Jun 2020 - 9:15 am

Wow Simon! Your carefully crafted refutation totally demolished my argument that the ABC is largely left wing.

The ‘Hahaha’ really stung.

Please, no more… I take it all back!

Ian
11 Jun 2020 - 9:50 am

Well, I asked how much ABC radio people earned and was expected a reply from Ita or maybe some underling at the ABC, but nope, still waiting.. so I got at a modicum of info via a DuckDuckGo search:

“Leaked document shows ABC stars’ salaries”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/money/leaked-document-shows-abc-stars-salaries/news-story/b72f0c8c107e72bababfe4e182e398d9

AAPDECEMBER 2, 2013 1:27PM

Radio National’s Breakfast host Fran Kelly is on $255,000.
Top earner in radio, Sydney Drive presenter Richard Glover comes in at $290,000.

However, as this info is almost 7 years old, I guess we can add, what 35 to 40% to these figures? Easily, I’d say.

Of course, many stars in commercial radio would spill that much at the bar on a Friday night. But there’s one huge difference: they aren’t paid by the tax-payer and their jobs are pretty much always on the line.

No wonder ABC types NEVER leave auntie. Why would they?

P.S. Why is this info ‘leaked’? Why isn’t it readily available?

Ita?

Friends of Friends of the ABC
11 Jun 2020 - 10:43 am

Can’t help but read the comments and feel that most negative responses are from right-winged people or ‘Alan Jones’ fans.

Why the hate? Oh wait.. that’s your sole agenda – you always need something to whinge about.

Not Dave
11 Jun 2020 - 11:27 am

@Friends of Friends Alan Jones fans and fantasists that think if triple J goes away the audience will immediately flood back to the frankly dire offerings from the commercial sector.

Disco Stu
11 Jun 2020 - 12:17 pm

ABC Classical has to go surely?

Ian
11 Jun 2020 - 4:07 pm

FOF… Since when has legitimate comment/criticism been ‘hate’?

I simply object to over- paying for a bloated ABC which then uses those tax-payer dollars to ram Marxist ideology down my throat. That’s my ‘sole agenda’.

Simon
11 Jun 2020 - 4:27 pm

Ian, your anti-public broadcasting comments got the response they deserved. Anyway, the joke will be on you in the near future when all your preferred news outlets will have collapsed and ABC News is the only one left standing. It makes no difference to them that Google and Facebook keep ripping off their content.

LeofromFreo
12 Jun 2020 - 6:07 pm

Too many women on the ABC. Radio National, local ABC radio, Classical, you name it. It’s women talking to women about women and playing music by women. Every time a male presenter leaves, he’s replaced by a woman. It’s intolerable. It’s monotonous.

Ian
13 Jun 2020 - 8:30 pm

Simon,

…” got the response they deserved..”

Really?

I’m still waiting for a decent response to my allegation that the ABC is a publicly funded, politically biased, self serving, sheltered workshop for (mostly) under-talented leftist agitators who want to CHANGE this great country to something that will – if they have their way – resemble Venezuela .

And…Simon….

GO.

Simon
14 Jun 2020 - 3:41 pm

Ian… Venezuela!? Now I think you’re trolling me. But if I’m to take you seriously for one second, my only retort would be to say that your very rightwing ideology (helped by your favourite media outlets) have formed views that a clearly fair, balanced and centrist ABC belongs to the “extreme left.” When you’re so far right I guess most people can seem like lefties.

Mark Dodge
15 Jun 2020 - 4:34 pm

Time to dump the J’s .
No longer relevant.
.

Patricia
16 Sep 2020 - 8:28 pm

ABC Classic FM has become unlistenable for much of the day/week. Hours devoted to music from video games, which is predictably DRAMA! TENSION! EXCITEMENT!, and qualitatively dubious in the extreme; good music in the mornings, but the presenters (one especially) affect a dumbed-down approach and have unpleasant voices (in contrast to the very listenable Mairi Nicholson in the afternoon); some interesting film music, though rarely if ever from the golden age of the movies, when there were really great composers working for Hollywood. I used to have ABC Classic FM on most of the day here, but now prefer 3MBS for long stretches.I wouldn’t want to see them defunded, but they’re on a wrong tack. It could be tweaked back to acceptable, though one or two presenters should either go or stop their dumbed-down affectations.

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