Our regular correspondent, Marcus May, reports on the views and intentions of the new Chair of the ABC, Kim Williams AM.

As reported by Amanda Meade of the Guardian, new ABC Chair Kim Williams, in recent interviews, has said “Murdoch company’s obsession with the public broadcaster is ‘fairly unhinged’ and should largely be ignored”.

In an encouraging interview, largely welcomed by the Australian public and ABC supporters, Williams gave wide-ranging views on why the ABC was so valuable to Australian society and where the ABC should be headed.

• On the subject of Radio: “It is not available to the ABC to simply withdraw a variety of broadcast services, like for example Radio National or ABC Classic or Triple J. They are part of our responsibility.” He also believes radio has suffered from internal neglect for some years and should have a much stronger audience.

• On ABC News, which recently resumed its place in June as Australia’s top online news brand with almost 12.6 million unique visitors, overtaking Murdoch’s news.com.au, Williams said “The ABC’s primary obligations are obviously to what might be regarded as serious news and commentary and to things that reflect a plurality of serious aspirations on the part of the community, or things that are in mainstream entertainment”. As reported in the Nine network, Williams thinks less prominence should be given to “lifestyle stories”.

• On the value of the ABC in today’s world, “I believe in a time of massive misinformation and disinformation the national media organisation has a very special role to play,” he says. Further, “.. there is a very substantial case for investing in the ABC to ensure that there is secure, quality Australian ballast in the national diet when we’re being completely overwhelmed with non-Australian material.” “One must have real concern as to what the children of Australia are consuming and how their hearts and minds [and] aspirations are actually being informed.”

• And on the current state of the ABC as he’s found it, “severely depleted and diminished” and the internal cultural consequences were that it had become more timid and “fractured into a series of tribes”. He took aim at the ABC’s documentary output, saying it was “in a bad place”; said its drama is “less distinctive” than it once was, and that ABC news sometimes had a “tabloid sensibility”.

Most significantly, Williams identified his own key ABC Chair activity – to secure appropriate funding – He says his role is to be “an active advocate for the ABC in terms of its secure resourcing”. He has calculated that the public broadcaster is underfunded in real terms to the tune of half a billion dollars compared to forty years ago.

I’m sure many of us are delighted and greatly relieved to hear the Chair of the ABC make observations that reflect much of the conversation out here in our living rooms. It’s a positive and welcome start for Mr. Williams.

But, back to News Corp and its “never ending stream of attacks on the ABC” (his words), Williams says “I mean, it borders at times on obsession. If you stand back from it, you would ask, ‘are you really serious?’”

Yep. Thanks Kim.