New Zealand needs its own “Aunty” - as Australia’s ABC is affectionately known - for the sake of long-form journalism.
Opinion: Australians, mostly with affection, know their national broadcaster as Aunty – a throwback to the ABC’s imitation of Britain’s BBC when it first hit the airwaves nearly 92 years ago.
Early radio announcers – the television arm didn’t arrive until 1956 – spoke with an English inflection, prompting exasperated MP Arthur Calwell, a future Labor leader, to declare there was too much Brit influence, calling the broadcaster “the “anti-Australian Broadcasting Commission”.
In many ways, Calwell’s words came to define what those who set up the ABC – now a corporation – wanted from their public broadcaster: Australian voices telling Australian stories through Australian eyes.
It has maintained and expanded that role for decades. It now employs about 4000 staff, 70% of them journalists and content makers, in 56 Australian locations and 11 overseas bureaus. There is no advertising; taxpayers foot the ABC’s annual $1.1 billion budget. Parliament has long guaranteed its independence through a charter, ensuring no political interference.
There’s now a hefty online presence, covering a large network of websites, including those for ABC News, its various television channels, ABC radio, podcasts, mobile apps and free video on demand.
Almost two-thirds of Australians believe publicly funded media is “very” or “quite” important to society, researchers at the University of Canberra’s News and Media Research Centre found last year. The findings reflect the ABC’s own figures, which say that more than 80% of Australians trust the ABC, compared with average trust of 57% for commercial media.
In New Zealand, by contrast, it is ebbing away – and fast. The latest Auckland University of Technology (AUT) survey on trust in New Zealand’s media, released in April, shows general trust in news has continued to decline – from 53% in 2020 when the first report was published to 33% today – a 38% drop in five years.
The reasons are many and varied. The AUT report notes that those who do not trust the news, or avoid it, do so due to concerns over its negativity, the impact that it has on their mental health, and what they perceive as “political bias and opinion masquerading as news”.
I’d add another – the decline of New Zealand television. Not just the news selection – how many overturned fuel tankers must we see – but also the fall off in long-form storytelling and investigations. We know New Zealand is capable of making great television – as Australia’s ardent reviews of the Wellington-based drama After the Party testify.
Last month’s decision by TVNZ to axe its Sunday programme seems the final nail in the coffin for long-form broadcast journalism – along with the ending of the 1News at Midday and 1News Tonight shows.
US media giant Warner Bros Discovery had already confirmed the impending shutdown of Three’s Newshub operation.
The mute media and communications minister, Melissa Lee, has since been sacked by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon – who himself has yet to say how the news in New Zealand can be rescued, having gone into the election with no public media policy.
Call me a dinosaur but having spent most of my life in Australia, I’ve come to value immensely a real public broadcaster, state funded, unfettered by government or commercial interference and stuffed with great creative minds who tell our stories.
The planned merger with RNZ, hopefully with a far less commercial TVNZ, promised the return of a real public broadcaster – until the then-Labour government lost its nerve and then the election.
New Zealand needs its own Aunty.
