Media Release

22 January 2018: On the day of the new ABC local radio programming, Federal Member for Kennedy Bob Katter has voiced his concerns over the recent cut to The Drive programme. ABC announced it would be slashing the North Qld Drive programme – aired from Townsville – and the announcer Pat Hession with it, to combine the show with Far North Qld’s Drive segment aired from Cairns.

The Show will run one hour longer, but will mean the announcer has to cover an enormous geographical area (Mount Isa, to the Gulf, to the Torres Straits, to Mackay) for community conversation, news and topics of “local” interest, which will essentially remove all that is “local” and “community”.

It also raises the issue of emergency broadcasting and a potential to lose the real and raw coverage of what’s happening in the area it’s directly affecting, like in the case of a cyclone.

It comes nearly one year after the ABC’s Managing Director Michelle Guthrie announced the ABC would invest $50 million in new content and create 80 new jobs in rural and regional Australia under a new strategy and transformation programme.

Mr Katter is disappointed in the ABC’s move as it’s just another job slashing issue to add to the Government’s list.

“A lot of our day is spent in motorcars. Pat Hession’s segment, on The Drive programme covering North Queensland was one of the better listening experiences. This is a cut to local content and stories – the bread and butter of the ABC,” Mr Katter said.

“The Government is going broke. There have been 640,000 people eligible for work in a country with an economy that is only generating 200,000 jobs a year,” Mr Katter said.

“They’re selling assets, reducing a free hospital system, and slashing the ABC - a vital community service,” Mr Katter said.

Mr Katter warned that taking the local connection away from a community station will also mean we lose touch with the real issues.

“Conspiracy theorists say the persecution of people going to pubs is to stop us talking together - heavens we might tell each other that we’ve got the highest unemployment in Australia in the greater Townsville region, the highest crime rate, and worst water supply.

“We can’t have people talking to each other – this is the stuff of revolutions,” Mr Katter said.

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