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80 jobs tipped to go from Australia Network

Forced redundancies are set to affect journalists, producers, technical and communications staff.

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Screen Shot 2014-05-13 at 8.47.42 pm.jpgAround 80 jobs are expected to be cut from the ABC managed Australia Network, according to media reports today.

The job losses follow the government’s decision to ditch funding the Asia-Pacific broadcasting service.

Staff were being advised by ABC International CEO Lynley Marshall and News Director Kate Torney today.

Fairfax reports forced redundancies will be felt most in Melbourne but it will affect staff working across TV and radio including journalists, producers, technical and communications staff.

News Corp reports 25 editorial and seven operational jobs will be lost, but figures have not been confirmed by the ABC.

Community and Public Sector Union President Michael Tull said,”The government has put the ABC in an impossible position, however we are very disappointed that up to 80 people will be sacked.

“This is an appalling way to treat hardworking staff as they who won’t have a say in whether they get to keep their jobs.

“We don’t accept the process of forced redundancies and we believe the ABC is in breach of its industrial obligations and we are considering the next step.”

In May the government terminated the $223m contract between the ABC and DFAT’s Australia Network.

The international television service was established by the ABC in 1993, then known as ATVI.

The ABC is 1 year into its current 10 year contract.

6 Responses

  1. @Bazza – You are totally right. When it goes off, or on a loop, FTA stations will use either CCTV China or similar. AN is the sole FTA service for most of the time in Cook Isl., PNG, Samoa, Solomons, and many other Asia/Pacific countries. None will tx a non-stop news channel, be it ABC24 or Sky News. The loss of Home & Away, A Place to Call Home, Blue Water High, Bondi Vet, Learn English, 4 Corners, Foreign Corresp, Mr & Mrs Murder, MKR, AFL, etc. etc. won’t go down well. Will reflect very badly on Aust.

  2. Pertinax you might be interested to know that people in South East Asian nations actually quite enjoy the Australia Network and are very upset that your luddite friends in the LNP are cancelling it. In some areas it is one of the few (if not only) FTA broadcasts available and many of these areas have large numbers of Australian expats and/or tourists.

    Not only that, it provides a very beneficial ‘soft diplomacy’ presence in the region, acknowledged by political experts everywhere. Of course, caring about the welfare of others isn’t part of the Liberal remit these days, so you may not understand the point.

  3. Pertinax, are paid by the LNP? That’s the excuse Bishop gives for this ideological axing, but we all know the real reason. Of course, if they just end up replacing AN with a News24 feed that will bite this government in the arse. This is another Abbott disgrace!

  5. One has to wonder if Bishop would have cancelled the contract if Sky had it now.
    AN may still be there but 6hrs on a loop -exactly as it started. We’ve come a long way in 21 years.
    One wonders exactly what “terms of the contract” ABC wasn’t meeting.

  6. The ABC’s service was was to be replaced with a service for DFAT that was to be tendered for. Sky won the tender, Conroy didn’t want Sky to have it so he retended rigging the process in the ABC favour so they would win, but they lost again. So Conroy just ignored the result again and gave them a 10 year contract before his lame duck government was voted out of office.

    Bishop, the Minister for DFAT, gave formal notification that ABC was not meeting the terms of the contract and then canceled the contract.

    Of course the union doesn’t except the concept of forced redundancies they are a union, but that delusion is their problem.

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