Last Friday, the Senate Enquiry unhandily called ‘The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s commitment to reflecting and representing regional diversity’ held a hearing in Tasmania. Mark Scott, CEO of the ABC, would not have been pleased.
The context is pretty simple. The ABC, and the industry through its government support, is obliged to embrace the diversity of Australian culture. That is a complicated idea, and broadcasters mostly believe that programs should be delivered by stable, experienced companies. So the policy framework is ensuring that the work is driven by an increasingly small number of increasingly large enterprises, who are supposed to reach out across class, culture and region to make programs that reflect the lived experience of Australians.
