Our regular correspondent, Marcus May looks at how Parliament has voted on the ABC in the past, as an indication of their future attitudes.

When we’re considering how to vote, it would be useful to know how supportive of the ABC our federal candidates will be if elected, wouldn’t it?

But how can we know that? Ask them? Yes that’s one way, but without being too damning, politicians do have somewhat of a reputation for, well, not consistently sticking to the truth, for using weasel words to avoid answering questions, and even sometimes for directly lying (my goodness!).

One indicator, if the candidate has been in federal parliament for some time, could be to look back at their history of recorded voting on issues concerning the ABC; issues like funding, &/or privatisation. So let’s do that.

The Open Australia Foundation, a non-partisan, not for profit organisation (like ABC Friends), has created an open-source website called “TheyVoteForYou” that summarises how politicians have voted on a range of issues over the years since 2006.

The site says, “Forget what politicians say. What truly matters is what they do. And what they do is vote, to write our laws which affect us all.”

Now the site isn’t perfect, but, in lieu of trawling endlessly through Hansard, the site does instead provide the best analysis of the voting history of individuals and parties that we could find.

Two of the issues listed on TheyVoteForYou are:

  • Decreasing Funding For the ABC and SBS
  • Privatising the ABC

There have been some 17 motions concerning ABC funding, and 2 motions concerning privatisation, that have been examined by TheyVoteForYou.

So, what does the analysis on these issues show us?

In a motion introduced by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young (WA) condemning the Liberal Party Federal Council’s 2018 decision (overwhelmingly at 4 to 1) to privatise the ABC, the Greens and Labor fully supported the motion, while the Coalition parties, supported by Pauline Hanson and, surprisingly perhaps, Nick Xenophon Team, unanimously voted against.

That voting pattern, Greens and Labor positive versus a negative Coalition on ABC support, has invariably been repeated on every ABC-related motion since 2006, and the individual parliamentarians concerned have never voted against party lines.

Since the 2022 election, this Labor government has promised to introduce a five-year ABC funding cycle that includes $40 million p.a. recovery in funds from 2026/7 onwards, but this has not as yet been legislated. The emerging power of the independent “Teals” has been broadly supportive of the ABC, and one would anticipate that to continue.

About 40% of the roles in the current Coalition’s Shadow Ministry led by Peter Dutton are held by people who have in the past personally voted to decrease ABC funding or to privatise the ABC. That percentage does not include any history of Dutton himself, who despite publicly attacking and criticising the ABC relentlessly over the years (“The ABC is dead to me”) has never apparently voted on these matters.

So, one could conclude, the Coalition will not be friendly to the ABC, in fact probably be unfriendly, based upon past actual voting record.

The Greens and many independents have this year agreed to all six components of the ABC Friends campaign platform for additional ABC support (see ABC Friends Campaign website) including support for $150 million additional funds per year.

In contrast, the Coalition candidates have so far refused to respond at all to the ABC Friends platform, and Labor is currently procrastinating about currently providing any further support.

All we can say is, “those that do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it”.

The rest is up to us when we vote.