At last week’s Senate Estimates Committee hearing, outgoing ABC managing director David Anderson was represented by acting managing director Melanie Kleyn, who spoke about the ABC’s commitment to regional radio and journalism.

Answering questions from Nationals Senator Perin Davey, Kleyn reinforced the national broadcaster’s commitment to regional radio services.

“We had a board meeting in Toowoomba where our chair confirmed that we would not back away from our commitment to the 60 new journalists that we appointed with the Meta and Google funding, notwithstanding that the Meta funding will cease quite shortly. We have no intention of withdrawing our regional commitment…

“Our chair is exceptionally clear in his communication and his views—that I suggest we all share – on our commitment to regional journalism and, in particular, to those radio services.”

Senator Davey, clearly a fan of Richard Glover’s Thank God it’s Friday program, then quizzed Kleyn on the location of the regular Friday afternoon broadcast.

Senator DAVEY: When I tune into Thank God it’s Friday! on Friday afternoons, are they now based out of Ultimo or Parramatta?

Ms Kleyn: That particular program, I believe, is based out of Parramatta, but it also goes on the road from time to time.

Senator DAVEY: Yes, I know. They go to Chatswood sometimes too. I listen to my radio.

Senator McAllister: You and I will be in estimates on Friday afternoon, Perin, so you won’t be doing that.

Senator DAVEY: I know. I’ll miss it this week.

PARRAMATTA MOVE

Answering a question from Senator Davey about how the move to Parramatta is going, the acting managing director answered:

Ms Kleyn: The move to Parramatta is actually going very well; thank you. We’ve spoken before about that. We are taking space in the Promenade, which is on Parramatta Square, so we have a public presence. We have our local radio teams now live from the Promenade, which brings in that local presence and that connection to the community. We also have audio studios that are fully lit up on level 39. We’ve still got some work to do in relocating some people. We’ve still got some work to do with the technical fit-out. By and large, we’re very pleased with the way that it’s gone. We’ve had an official launch. We’ve got local radio in the Promenade. For a project of that size, we’re pretty much on time and we’re on budget…

Senator DAVEY: Is Radio National getting special treatment? Where are the Sydney offices of Radio National broadcasting out of?

Ms Kleyn: I wouldn’t say Radio National is getting special treatment. Radio National – without being facetious – as in its title, is a national program. We have prioritised local services because they’re more engaged with the community. We will rotate services like Radio National and perhaps Triple J or other national programs as appropriate. We will do certain things in Parramatta around festivals or Book Week that may be fitting. But the focus has been on local, our local radio services, our local newsrooms, as a matter of priority.

Senator DAVEY: You said that you’re expecting the move to be on time. How about on budget?

Ms Kleyn: Yes.

Senator DAVEY: What’s the expected final cost of the move?

Ms Kleyn: I absolutely know the number because I get a budget update weekly. I’m hesitating because we have done the project as the Sydney accommodation project, which is a combination of Ultimo and Parramatta, which is how it was also presented to the public works committee for approval. The total budget for the project is approximately $67 million, and we are on budget.

Senator DAVEY: Is Ultimo going to remain?

Ms Kleyn: Ultimo will remain, yes. What we’ve done as part of the project is refurbish a large area of Ultimo for a range of reasons. We had to lift the building to an appropriate work, health and safety level and address accessibility issues. One of the primary motivators was our commitment that the rental cost of Parramatta would be at least offset by the leasing that was coming in through Ultimo. So we have freed up floors in the Ultimo tower.

ABC JOURNALISM

Senators also questioned the ABC on its recent Janke racism review, Alan Sunderland’s report on the additional gun shot sounds inserted into the Afghan report promo and on perceptions of biased reporting on the Israel-Gaza war. The ABC representatives were also asked what precautions the ABC is putting in place to protect reporters from aggression during the upcoming election campaign.

Senator Faruqi asked Director of News Justin Stevens “What is the ABC specifically putting in place to protect journalists, particularly journalists of colour, from vile attacks…”

Mr Stevens: We issue a large amount of training to our journalists. With every single journalist in the ABC, we arm them with the training they need to ask good questions that are in the public interest. That relates to everything from interviews to press conferences and doorstops. We’re particularly mindful, with an election approaching, with unrivalled presence of journalists across Australia, that our journalists need to be equipped and able to ask authoritative questions, on behalf of the public and audience, of politicians of all persuasions. We’re investing a lot in making sure our journalists are equipped to do that and that they have the scaffolding around them to be able to do it well.

FUNDING & EFFICIENCY CUTS

On the matter of ABC funding, the acting managing director told Senator Hanson-Young there are four key areas where the ABC can pull financial levers in times of tight budgets. They are: employee and transmission costs, property and production commissioning. After a decade of funding decline the ABC has had a recent increase in funding Kleyn explained:

“In real terms, over the last 10 years our funding has declined by approximately 14 per cent. That is $150 million plus in real funding cuts that have been returned to government.

“Alongside that, we have also had our own efficiency initiatives to enable us to invest where we have needed to invest. That includes in developing digital products, so we can serve audiences across platforms that audiences are coming to. That includes some increased investment across growth in transmission costs, for example, which is tied to very fixed inflaters. We have both the decline of around 14 per cent in real terms, which equates to about $150 million plus, plus the things we have done to ourselves either to be more efficient or just to meet our basic requirements of being the ABC.

“The second part of your question was: now let’s look forward. If we look forward, with our funding, we were very grateful in the October 2022 budget to receive additional funding. That was related to the Better Funded National Broadcasters, and some specific security-enhancing Pacific engagement measures. Certain of those measures are terminating measures; they terminate in FY27…”

Following up on funding, the Senator asked about the expected pull-out of funds from Meta and Google, which will hit regional journalism funding

Senator HANSON-YOUNG: What about that extra money that was given because of Meta, which was spent on regional broadcasting and delivery of services? In last estimates Mr Anderson told us that those services would be secured, but you’ve had to fund that out of other things; is that right?

Ms Kleyn: That’s right. We’ve made a commitment to the preservation of those 60 new roles that have been appointed through the funding provided to us by Meta and by Google. In making that commitment we’ve acknowledged that, in the absence of other new replacement funding—for the want of a better term—absolutely it is a whole-of-ABC challenge that we would need to seek a manner across the ABC in which we can continue to fund those roles.

Senator HANSON-YOUNG: Can you tell us what’s being sacrificed to do that?

Ms Kleyn: At this point we have not done any detailed decision-making on where we would look if we had to find a solution to a $40 million funding gap. In terms of our financial structure—I think I’ve said this before on the record—we have a relatively simple financial structure for a complex operation.

There are essentially four areas we can go to.

We have our employee costs.

We have our transmission costs, which are largely fixed through long-term contracts.

We have our property costs and what attaches to that from a decentralised operation. I think you’ve heard me say here already that our commitment to that decentralised operation is that delivery to regional communities.

We have our expenditure with the production sector.

They’re the four areas we can look to.

NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR

During Estimates the ABC confirmed that a process has commenced to recruit a new managing director. “Under the direction of the chair and the board, we have appointed our search firm, Spencer Stuart, who are assisting with that recruitment process. We are moving through that now. When we might announce depends on that process.”

The full Hansard Transcript is available here.