Australian Broadcasting Corporation Discussion
CHAIR—Senator Joyce has a question.
Senator JOYCE—I like the ABC. I reckon it is great. Radio National is like the University of the Third Age; it is great to listen to. Triple J wakes you back up when Radio National is sending you to sleep. I have a couple of brief questions. Do you have to have The Planet on every day on Radio National? It is very boring.
CHAIR—It is a late-night music program.
Senator JOYCE—Do you ever listen to it?
Mr Balding—I have listened to it occasionally, but these are programs—
Senator JOYCE—I put it on in the house and the cat fell asleep.
Mr Balding—We all have our different views and beliefs about programming. These programming decisions are taken annually.
Senator JOYCE—He disappeared for a while, but he came back. The other thing is—on a serious note—I have been lobbied about wanting to keep a strong regional presence for the ABC. Do you struggle keeping older journalists?
Mr Balding—Older?
Senator JOYCE—Yes, older.
Senator WORTLEY—I think he means experienced.
Senator JOYCE—Experienced.
Mr Balding—Mr Cameron might be in a better position to answer that.
Mr Cameron—I am still here. I do not know. The context of your question eludes me a little. Certainly, people retire when they get to retirement age. A lot of people stay on beyond retirement age.
Senator JOYCE—You have a fair distribution of journalists that is comparable to other stations in ages?
Mr Cameron—In ages?
Senator JOYCE—Yes.
Mr Cameron—Very much so.
Senator JOYCE—Finally, why is it that you can always tell me what the weather was like in St George but you can never tell me what it is going to be like? Every night, I watch the weather and it tells me how hot it was. I know that; I live there. But it can never tell me how hot it is going to be tomorrow. What happens to St George on the prognosis chart?
Mr Cameron—On the television, do you mean?
Senator JOYCE—Yes, on the television.
Mr Cameron—I do not know. There is a forecast element, and it should cover your particular spot as well as everyone else’s.
Senator JOYCE—It is the same with a lot of towns. You fit us on the map to tell us what it was like, but we seem to be off the map when you are going to tell us what it is going to be like. Can we have that looked into? I just want to help the people of regional Queensland to find out what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, as opposed to yesterday.
Mr Cameron—There is a component of the forecast, as you know, that does point ahead. There are divisional forecasts, as you know, region by region. I know it does not predict the temperature tomorrow for St George, but it does generally cover the area.
Senator JOYCE—Can I just ask a quick question? With regard to content, I know you have your regional capitals, but do you have any plans for further identifying developing regional areas as a base for news? For television, I am referring to here, instead of just having Brisbane do you also use North Queensland as a separate base?
Mr Balding—You may or may not be aware of the history of this. Some three years ago in our previous tri-annual funding submission, the ABC did seek additional funding to launch a far north Queensland news service out of Townsville. We were talking a bit earlier on about audience research. We did do significant audience research in far North Queensland to see whether or not the audience there would welcome their own far north Queensland news as opposed to a news service coming solely out of Brisbane.
CHAIR—I can give you the answer to that one.
Mr Balding—The result was yes, but there was no funding forthcoming for that. What the proposal was, because we already have a studio in our Townsville office and that television studio is basically in mothballs at the moment, but with at that stage about $8 million or $10 million worth of capital funding to convert that television studio into a digital studio, we were seeking in the order of $2 million or $2.5 million per annum to assist us to provide a local television news bulletin out of Townsville.
Senator JOYCE—Certainly there is as much interest in North Queensland about Brisbane as there would be about Adelaide. It is almost a separate state.
Mr Cameron—Interestingly, I think that our research showed that, although we felt they did want a defined North Queensland news service, they also did not want to lose what they saw as a national bulletin even though it came from Brisbane. They wanted both.
Senator JOYCE—Is there an ability to—I am searching for a better word but I am going to use the word ‘pickle’—to pickle the service so that you have actually got grabs from associates of both?
Mr Balding—You need to do a breakout on it because of the footprints on the satellite and that was part of the funding that I thought I was seeking, because at the moment it is a statewide signal going out of Brisbane and you need to do a breakout for the different areas.