A former ABC bigwig has launched an attack on the national broadcaster for continuing to fail the needs of the WA community as it undergoes a massive overhaul which will see the corporation transform into a digital-first media organisation.
Richard Harding, who was a Commissioner of the ABC in 1975 and then a director between 1988 and 1993, claims the massive restructure announced in May risks further alienating people who depend on the ABC for information, including those in rural and regional WA.
The ABC is abolishing its eight state-based 7pm Sunday news bulletins and has slashed jobs as part of sweeping changes designed to transform the public broadcaster to “adapt for the digital world.”
Harding said many people who rely on the ABC deal with slow internet and mobile drop-outs.
“We must never forget those people out in the sticks who are reliant on the ABC for their information,” he told The West.
“In addition, a lot of people simply don’t, as a matter of course, tune into electronic media and social media.”
Harding lambasted the national broadcaster for already being too “Sydney-centric” and said cutting the state-based 7pm Sunday news bulletins was a “ridiculous” move that will result in even less local news.
He said it should be a requirement that a director from every state is on the corporation’s board whose duty it is to represent their own state’s interests alongside their overall national duties.
“My appointment was as a Commissioner for Western Australia and the expectation was that I would continually lobby at Commission level for the needs of the WA community,” he said.
“I was supported and informed by a strong Advisory Committee of West Australians.”
He said this was the case in every state at the time and that the model “acted as a check on the Sydney-centric instincts of management” and worked effectively.
It was then abandoned by the Hawke Government but he believes it should be brought back.
“At present, there is a Director who is based in Western Australia but he has not been appointed as a guardian for WA interests, and cannot under the present governance model be expected to play such a role,” Harding said.
“If there is to be a clear-out of the board, they might actually consider going back to a model where there are some directors who represent the states.”
Harding spoke out after former ABC personality Ian Parmenter revealed earlier this month that he was angry at the failures of ABC’s Sydney-based management.
“Having witnessed the organisation’s decline in recent times – with creative talent leaving while top-heavy management takes a Sydney-centric approach to all it does – the last thing the ABC needs is a digitally focused organisation,” Parmenter said.
He added: “Sorry, chair Ita Buttrose and managing director, David Anderson, you may be perfectly satisfied with the services that you have in your comfortable Ultimo, Sydney, headquarters.
“Most of the country is not happy with how you’re destroying the nation’s most trusted broadcaster.”