Chapter 2: Centralisation of Government-Funded National Broadcasting Services
2.1 Centralisation of the ABC

Statistics provided throughout this Report indicates that in addition to the ABC having its head office in Sydney, there is a heavy weighting of non-head office resource allocation in Sydney. These resources predominantly relate to staff numbers and program production.

Evidence also suggests decision making is very much centralised in Sydney and that senior Sydney-based management have significant influence in programming decisions. The Committee has seen little evidence of ABC State Managers influencing programming decisions and also questions the ability of Commissioning Editors, some of whom are located outside of Sydney, to make decisions without the influence of Sydney senior management.

Briefly, the following statistics point to the ABC centralising resources in Sydney:-

• 52% of staff are located in New South Wales compared to 16% in Victoria. The previous year this breakdown was 47% in NSW and 19% in Victoria. In the past two years, Sydney has lost 109 out of 2,294 staff while Melbourne has lost 252 out of 936 staff.
• Other States share of staff has also decreased over the last 12 months.

(Source: ABC Annual Reports 1996/97 & 1997/98)

• Eight out of nine departments are headquartered in Sydney. The only Department based outside of Sydney is Regional Services which, while headquartered in Melbourne, has the majority of staff located outside Victoria.

Location of ABC Departments

• The vast majority of key output functions, including News and Current Affairs, National Networks and Program Production are predominantly centralised in Sydney.
• Approximately 85% of support function staff, including Corporate Management, Enterprises, Finance & Business Services, Human Resources and Technology Strategy & Development are located in Sydney, compared to 7% in Melbourne.
• All major national news and current affairs programs are produced in Sydney including television programs The 7.30 Report, Four Corners, Foreign Correspondent and Lateline, radio programs A.M., P.M. and The World Today. Late night local radio news bulletins are broadcast from Sydney.
• 55% of Radio National programs and 90% Triple J programs are produced in Sydney.

• FINDING

The Committee finds that there is an over-concentration of ABC resources in Sydney which significantly disadvantages other States and capital cities.

Throughout this Report, evidence will be referred to which strongly suggests that decisions made by Sydney-based management are not made in the interests of all Australians. These decisions range from news editorial decisions, programming decisions and corporate decisions relating to future technology and accommodation strategies.