TJ Ryan Foundation Research Associate and ABC Friends National President, Margaret Reynolds, has penned an open letter to Michelle Guthrie, Managing Director of the ABC, suggesting that cuts to the national broadcaster’s regional and remote broadcasting services should be reconsidered.
‘It is the ABC’s responsibility to provide services to all Australians. The Shortwave Service was set up at the time when transmission was moving towards satellite-delivered services. There was an argument that it would be surpassed by satellite, but this argument was proven to be false …. The Shortwave Service was still essential to the provision of communication services to communities that did not qualify for satellite reception facilities, and ESPECIALLY to those who were transient, be they peripatetic Indigenous communities, truckies, fishers, grey nomads and others. These communities have a RIGHT to demand a service from the national public broadcaster, especially in times of trauma, but also for entertainment and information local, national and international, and to feel a part of a broader Australia.’