Programmes which provide important information and entertainment to those of us who live in country areas, do not need to be at the frontline of ABC budget efficiencies. 

I grew up on a diet of ABC radio for breakfast, ABC radio for lunch and ABC TV news for dinner. There was no other broadcaster we listened to. 

That was when the ABC represented regional areas with gusto and there was a rich content of rural stories, market reports, weather forecasts, documentaries on regional Australia, regional news programmes, and a few more weather reports.

We are still hooked on the ABC in our house, as are many, many regional families. But it can hardly be said that much of the content is sympathetic to the issues of regional Australia and the values most of us share. Even Quentin Dempster has confirmed that the ABC’s current focus is Sydney centric, and that the growth of digital is not being used to provide more locally focused content. Indeed, the magic of digital is that it should support customisation of content to many different audiences.

As I travel around rural areas I hear much talk about the change in the public broadcaster’s narrative. These sorts of claims are not new. For decades government at all levels and of all political hues has attacked the ABC’s focus and value. 

But an increasingly city centric narrative risks isolating a swathe of conservative, country Australians who love the ABC, but are stuck with language, values, issues and assumptions of inner urban Australia.

In asking taxpayer funded organisations to find savings, the Government is trying to fix Labor’s budget mess. For many years the rest of government has needed to deliver efficiencies and so should the ABC. A large organisation like the ABC can do things more efficiently without reducing services delivered. 

The best way the ABC and SBS can reduce their costs is to modernise their businesses, learning from other broadcasters’ practices in streamlining back office functions. Every other media channel, and most other Australian businesses have delivered far greater efficiencies than these. For many years, my job was to find efficiency gains in all manner of organisations and I know that a five percent reduction in the ABC’s costs over four years is very modest. 

As we head into summer holidays, in front of test cricket on the TV, with the ABC news theme playing somewhere on a TV or radio, my message to ABC supporters is to watch and listen carefully. Watch carefully if ABC management increases its focus on urban Australia, and continues to shift away from regional Australia.  It’s regional Australia’s ABC, just as much as it’s anyone else’s.  It is time for ABC management to increase the focus on regional Australia, not reduce it.