Saving Radio

Australia

Soon after the Howard government came to office last year, Communications Minister Senator Richard Alston announced savage cuts to the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), which runs Radio Australia, and a major review with terms of refer ence which clearly offered the opportuni ty to reduce the national broadcaster to minor player in the Australian media.

The response from the audience with in Australia was immediate and over whelming - don’t touch the ABC! Former newspaper honcho Bob Mansfield, who chaired the review, had expected between 3000 and 5000 submissions. Despite a very short consultation period, he received well over 10,000 and was forced to admit that the deluge made it impossi ble to read all of them in detail.

When Mansfield’s report was released at the end of January, it became clear that he had taken those views on board. His solution to the ABC’s need to save money was to close Radio Australia and close or sell off its international television service, Australia Television (ATV).

With few Australians having any idea of what Radio Australia does, and there fore few votes to be lost. Radio Australia was a sitting duck. Radio Australia’s SAI3-million (SUS9.S-million) annual budget and the SA7 million (SUSS.3 mil lion) spent on transmission, when added to the savings the ABC had already announced, would be almost enough to meet the total cut of SASS million (SUS4O.3 million) which must be achieved in the upcoming year. On the day the report was released Senator Alston endorsed the plan.

Since then Radio Australia’s listeners have been making their voice heard in let ters and faxes to the ABC and to John Howard and his government.

Among those protesting have been Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan ( who offered to contribute

K 1 million ($U5650,000) towards any

rescue package), Cook Islands Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Henry, Vanuatu Deputy Prime Minister Donald Kalpokas,

Fijian Minister for Finance and Economic Development Berenado Vunibobo, American Samoan Congressman Eni Faleomavaega and Western Samoan Ambassador in Australia George

Fepulea’i.

As well, there have been a host of let ters from senior figures in regional insti tutes such as the University of the South Pacific, the South Pacific Geoscience Commission (SOPAC), the Forum Fisheries Agency, the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme, ESCAP in Pofl Vila as well as from church and community groups, individu als and the many broadcasting organisa tions, both government and commercial, which use Radio Australia reports in their bulletins of regional and international news. In his letter to Howard, Sir Geoffrey pointed out that for millions of Pacific Islanders, Radio Australia and Radio New Zealand International are the major channels of contact with the outside world. The premier of Bougainville, Gerard Sinato, noted that it was through Radio Australia that Bougainvilleans first heard of the assassination of his predeces sor, Theodore Miriung.

The Kanak Independence Movement, the FUNKS, hailed Radio Australia’s French service as the only way Kanaks are able to hear regularly about regional events and told Senator Alston that it feels deeply concerned by the possibility of a closure since part of its struggle aims at further integration of New Caledonia in

its region.

While people in the Pacific have turned to Radio Australia for news at times of crisis, such as when Tahiti was ablaze with riots over the resumption of French nuclear testing, in the early days of the Gulf War or during the two coups in Fiji in 1987, many people, including the former governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, Savenaca Siwatibau, also comment ed on the value of programmes dealing with ongoing issues such as health, the environment and economic development, and their role in promoting good gover nance. Those of us here at Radio Australia who have seen the faxes and mail pouring in over the past few weeks have been greatly heartened and would like to thank

those who have written.

Despite the depth and the breadth of the response. Radio Australia is still not out of the woods. The ABC board, rather than defending its international broadcast ers, has ducked the issue and is effective ly passing it back to the Howard govern ment. Senator Alston and Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer have both made comments which indicate they think Radio Australia should go and Howard has said he intends to act “speedily”.

Senator Alston, in particular, is making it clear he thinks Radio Australia is “expendable” and has been much quoted citing what he says is a decline in RA’s audience from 100 million 20 years ago to 20 million now.

Unfortunately, those figures are inaacurate. The figure of 100 million is a guess which was put into the Dix Inquiry into the ABC in the early 1980 s with the caveat that Radio Australia ! did not have any audience research and therefore could not claim any evidence for that figure.

The more recent figure of 20 million includes only listeners for whom there is survey evidence - countries not surveyed include many places where anecdotal evi dence suggests a sizeable audience, places such as India and China and Pacific Island countries other than Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji. It also does not include those who heard Radio Australia as a rebroadcsat on their local station. The survey evidence avail able for the Pacific shows that in PNG 33 per cent of the adult population listens to Radio Australia at some time of the year a figure Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer would kill for. Across the Pacific and Asia, the debate surrounding indepen dent MP Pauline Hanson has left many people asking whether Australia is return ing to its isolationist, some would say racist, stance of past years.

To close radio Australia would be to add another voice shouting a resounding “Yes!” across the region.

Tony Hughes, former governor of the Reserve Bank of the Solomon Islands, in his letter to the ABC’s managing director, Brian Johns, said taking an axe to Radio Australia would be glaringly inconsistent with ... the policies espoused by past and present prime ministers and ministers of foreign affairs towards the Pacific and Asia. The loss of even part of this cost effective service would be keenly, even bitterly, felt, and would quickly do dam age to Australia’s reputation and ability to influence affairs in the region.”

It is clear the Pacific hopes Canberra is listening. ■

Jemima Garrett was Radio Australia’s South Pacific correspondent for seven years. She now works for Radio Australia’s Pacific service.