Governments of all persuasions have never much liked the ABC, and cuts to its budget have occurred with monotonous regularity. With defunding since 2014 now severely affecting programming capacity, ABC Alumni is agitating for a return to proper funding and a commitment to protecting the ABC’s independence. The Alumni, of course, are former members of staff. But in the 1970s, the ABC’s serving staff engaged in almost three years of industrial action against the Fraser government’s budget cuts, w...

Just released, the long-awaited book by academics Matthew Ricketson and Patrick Mullins – Who Needs the ABC? – is a thorough analysis of the ABC over recent decades and an unequivocal defence of the national broadcaster’s vital role in a healthy democracy. The ABC, they say, is now doing more than it ever has, with less funding than it needs and under a barrage of criticism – largely unwarranted. But, they warn, despite recent budget announcements, the future of the ABC is under very real threa...

In the 1980s Tim Bowden produced many of ABC Radio’s most outstanding audio documentaries. They were forerunners of today’s podcast genre, and led the way in oral history documentary-making in Australia. In the first of this two-part series, Tim told of his early career and the making of his iconic series ‘Taim Bilong Masta’, which examined Australia’s involvement in Papua New Guinea, pre-independence. Now in part two, Tim tells of his next, and arguably most important, series – ‘Prisoners of W...

In recent weeks, controversy has ramped up over the ABC’s new iview policy requiring audiences to register compulsory log-in accounts. Critics say that this will allow audience data to be shared without consent to third parties such as Facebook and Google, and to others you may never have heard of. The Alumni’s technical expert Peter Marks shares some but not all of the critics’ concerns. Here he explains the issues.By Peter Marks, 19/3/2022 A YouTube video titled “Who’s watching what you watch...

Over the last month much of the east coast of Australia has been devastated by flooding, among the worst in living memory. We’ve seen stories of extraordinary efforts to evacuate desperate residents from rising flood waters, and the tragedy of people left homeless and towns swamped deep in mud. Once again, the ABC has been reporting around the clock and providing critical community updates, continuing its long tradition as the nation’s emergency broadcaster. For many alumni, the scale of the cu...

Long before podcast documentaries, ABC Radio pioneered the audio documentary genre with countless programs and series produced over several decades. Some of the most outstanding of these documentaries were made by Tim Bowden. He led the way in Australian oral history documentary-making with his iconic Taim Bilong Masta – a series looking at Australia’s involvement in Papua New Guinea, pre-independence – and with other landmark programs including Prisoners of War – Australians Under Nippon. In t...