SYDNEY — Addressing 60 people at the Parramatta Town Hall on July 25, ABC TV’s NSW Stateline program presenter Quentin Dempster challenged the recent appointment of conservative historian Keith Windschuttle to the ABC’s board of directors. Dempster said the move contradicted the ABC’s charter to remain independent of

commercial interests and party politics.

The recent appointment of Windschuttle, and Peter Hurley of the Australian Hotels Association, as non-executive directors of the board by federal communications minister Helen Coonan has caused concern among supporters of public broadcasting. Windschuttle attained academic infamy in 2002 for claiming that the attempted genocide of Aborigines and the extent of racism in Australian society have been exaggerated by left-wing historians. Hurley is a poker-machine baron and donor to the Liberal Party.

The appointments complete PM John Howard’s and Coonan’s overhaul of the board — filling it with conservatives and Coalition supporters with little experience or interest in public broadcasting. According to Dempster, the government is exercising greater and greater control of the ABC through the twin “levers of power — funding and board appointments”. He warned that a diminishing ABC budget will make it impossible for the broadcaster’s 4000 staff to achieve wage rises in line with CPI increases. “We could be in for downsizing”, he warned.

Owen Richards

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