How bad are the ABC cuts? THIS bad.

While the government's budget has tripled since 1985, the ABC budget has been cut by a third. According to a new report funded by GetUp!, we still love our ABC.

GetUp! has released Our ABC, a research document which tracks the impact of government cuts to the national broadcaster since 2013 and explores citizen sentiment through an online survey of 1026 people and a series of focus groups. Costs were covered by funding raised through Get Up’s donation system. 

To no-one’s surprise the research discovered that the cuts are ferocious. The figures reveal that ‘the national broadcaster’s 2019-20 operational revenue from Government of $879 million represents a decrease in real funding of $367 million per annum, or 29.5%, since 1985-86’. 

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David Tiley was the Editor of Screenhub from 2005 until he became Content Lead for Film in 2021 with a special interest in policy. He is a writer in screen media with a long career in educational programs, documentary, and government funding, with a side order in script editing. He values curiosity, humour and objectivity in support of Australian visions and the art of storytelling.