Christopher Pyne Somehow Failed To Stop Massive ABC Job Losses In Adelaide
If only there was something he could've done.
The long-awaited cuts to the ABC have finally been announced this morning. In an address to staff and a later press release from Managing Director Mark Scott, the full scope of the ABC cuts have become clear. You can read the release in its entirety here.
In a nutshell: The ABC will lose over 400 jobs, or nearly 10 percent of its current workforce, and it will close its production studio in Adelaide, as well as regional radio stations in Nowra, Gladstone, Port Augusta, Wagin and Morwell. Stateline, 7:30‘s state-based weekly program, is to be axed, as are a number of radio programs including Bush Telegraph on Radio National.
A number of ABC radio stations will be scaled back, including 1233 ABC Newcastle, and local state-based sports coverage will be ended entirely. Lateline, the ABC’s flagship current affairs program, will be reformatted and move to ABC News 24 on its original broadcast, with a later repeat on ABC1.
If you have concerns about the news surrounding budget cuts to ABC announced by the Government, please contact [email protected]
— 1233 ABC Newcastle (@1233newcastle) November 23, 2014
Can confirm that we at @RNBushTele have been cut. Thanks for your thoughts. We will keep going until Christmas #ABCcuts — RN Bush Telegraph (@RNBushTele) November 23, 2014
While all this was going on the ABC continued serving up business as usual; in that feature image at the top of the page, you can see ABC staff watching the announcement that 400 of their colleagues are getting the sack while presenter Joe O’Brien announces it on his own program.
One person who’s particularly unhappy with these recent developments, though, is Education Minister Christopher Pyne, who tweeted out open letters to Scott and ABC Chairman Jim Spiegelman this morning urging them not to close the ABC’s Adelaide production studio, which sits just outside Pyne’s electorate of Sturt.
My letters this morning to @mscott and James Spigelman of the ABC: the ABC must not stop production in SA. #auspol pic.twitter.com/JcHApf0Kzx
— Christopher Pyne (@cpyne) November 23, 2014
Pyne’s petition urging the ABC to keep the studio open, which went up online last week, has garnered over 2,000 signatures already, mostly from people pointing out the fact that Pyne, as a senior minister in the government responsible for the cuts to the ABC in the first place, could probably politely bring this up in a Cabinet meeting or something rather than harnessing the power of Change.org.
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Christopher has thanked everyone for their support, raising the distinct possibility that he is the stupidest carbon-based life form to exist from now until the heat death of the universe.
Play me out, Aunty.