YOU have to gasp at the political antennae of the Liberal Party members voting around 2:1 to privatise the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
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Yes the ABC is frustrating to the typical business-minded Liberal with its soaking up of taxpayer dollars and a largely progressive world view.
With that outlook it is not surprising that on Saturday delegates to the Liberal Party’s federal council strongly supported selling off the ABC.
But politically it would be poison for the federal Coalition to put the public broadcaster up for auction.
Particularly in regional areas, with coverage of bushfires and rural affairs via radio’s Country Hour, the ABC plays an integral role.
That is why it is not surprising the Border’s three Liberal MPs, Sussan Ley, Bill Tilley and Greg Aplin, uniformly distanced themselves yesterday from the federal council vote.
They realise the ABC is embedded in the cultural fabric of the nation and if it was privatised there would be a marked change in the sound and tone of public life.
Mr Aplin, who managed Prime television on the Border, noted commercial imperatives differ from those which drive the ABC.
And if the ABC was sold-off it could hurt private interests, particular as there would not be enough advertising revenue to sustain five commercial TV networks.
Private media companies, electronic and print, have suffered with the advent of online competition and there have been calls from some for the ABC to be wound in as it spreads from TV and radio to digital.
ABC adherents argue in response the federal government has taken a scalpel to the broadcaster and it is bleeding.
They also suggest editorial complaints by Coalition MPs to the ABC are motivated purely by politics rather than fairness.
Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten says now the Coalition will sell the ABC.
The federal council vote allows Mr Shorten to use that line with some credibility, but he did say the same thing about Medicare before the last poll and it has not occurred.
The ABC itself has not helped its cause at times with journalistic opinion overriding straight news, a Sydney-centric focus and low-rent programming where swearing is seen as a substitute for wit.
Nevertheless, for all its faults the ‘for sale’ sign is not likely to be hanging outside ABC studios soon.
