Communications Minister Requests Briefing on Public Broadcaster’s Staff Cuts

An employee walks past the logo of the ABC located at the main entrance to the ABC building located at Ultimo in Sydney, Australia, on June 5, 2019. (AAP/David Gray)

Australia’s communication minister, Michelle Rowland, has requested a briefing on the national broadcaster’s decision to axe 120 roles, including its political editor, Andrew Probyn.

This comes after the move received blowback from senior media and public figures in Australia and comes as management attempts to streamline the outlet to attract younger audiences.

“This is a very difficult time for any individual whose role may be impacted by the changes,” said a spokesperson for Rowland in a statement to The Epoch Times.

“The [Australian Broadcasting Corporation or ABC] ultimately has operational independence, and it is a matter for ABC management to determine how to structure the organisation within their funding envelope to meet the changing needs of audiences,” she said.

The headquarters of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in the background behind a UTS building in Ultimo of Sydney, Australia, on Jan. 5, 2023. (Daniel Teng/The Epoch Times)

“The minister has requested a briefing from the ABC management in regards to the ABC five-year plan and the announcement this week.”

On June 15, ABC News Director Justin Stevens sent a five-year plan to staff outlining the need to find “savings and efficiencies to deal with rising costs and to reinvest in its strategic priorities.”

“Everything we make now is digital—there is no delineation between content being for a digital audience or not,” Stevens said in comments obtained by AAP.

At the same time, ABC’s management is also working to accommodate a steadily increasing wage bill.

In April, the Media, Entertainment, and Arts Alliance won an 11 percent pay rise and a $1,500 bonus for around a thousand ABC staff. That pay rise was also backdated to Oct. 1, 2022.

ABC’s Decision Criticised by Public, Media Figures

Meanwhile, the ABC’s now redundant political editor Andrew Probyn has responded to the decision by speaking to the Guardian Australia and The Sydney Morning Herald.

“It has been a tremendous privilege, and I have worked with some wonderful people,” he told the mastheads.

“I struggle to understand the direction the ABC is going in that it could consider the role of political editor not needed.”

Fellow political editor at the Australian Financial Review, Phil Coorey, said he was the “most constant news breaker.”

“What a disgrace from an organisation full of middle-management time servers,” he wrote on Twitter.

Janet Albrechtsen, from News Corp’s The Australian newspaper, called it a “disgraceful decision.”

“We are the poorer for this. The ABC can hardly afford to lose someone of Andrew Probyn’s class and professionalism,” she wrote on Twitter.

While former New South Wales Premier Bob Carr also weighed in.

“ABC News is bad already, crammed with crime stories and scandalously missing big international news,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Sacking Andrew Probyn and replacing him with junior reporters who can get stuff on TikTok will drive down the audience even further. The chair and board must reverse this.”

Dr. Nick Coatsworth, former deputy chief medical officer, shared a similar view.

“Unless you’ve got great journalists like Andrew Probyn, your social and digital content will be worthless, no matter how much money you pump its way. False dichotomy from Justin Stevens and ABC management.”