After six years of Liberal lies, cuts and chaos, Morrison’s secret plan for a further $40 billion in cuts has been exposed.

Today’s revelations will likely mean more savage cuts to the ABC so the Liberals can pay for tax handouts to the top end of town. 

The Liberals cannot be trusted on the ABC and have form on cutting the national broadcaster.  

Three more years of Scott Morrison and the Liberals will mean the end of the ABC as we know it.  

The ABC has confirmed the $83.7 million in cuts now being faced by the public broadcaster threaten its ability to deliver its obligations under the ABC Charter and cannot be absorbed by efficiency measures alone.   

This comes on top of Liberal cuts of $254 million to the ABC, which have seen 800 staff walk out the door, the shutdown of shortwave radio and a drop in Australian content and services.    

What will Scott Morrison’s $40 billion of further cuts to fund tax reductions for the top end of town mean for ABC content and services?    

The Liberals and Nationals came to government on the promise of no cuts to the ABC. That was a lie.   

Now they go into the next election with yet more ABC cuts in the pipeline, and a $40 billion black hole to fill in order to afford their tax breaks for the top end of town.    

Over the past six years the ABC has been under relentless attack from the Liberals. This is the party that passed a motion to privatise the ABC at its Federal Council last year.     

The Liberals’ record speaks for itself.     

Only a Shorten Labor Government will support and maintain the ABC as our comprehensive national broadcaster because we will make multinationals pay their fair share and close tax loopholes used by the top end of town.    

This election is a choice. Australians can have a strong and independent ABC under Labor, or the Liberals’ bigger tax loopholes for the top end of town. They cannot have both.      

After six years of Liberal cuts and chaos, our united Labor team is ready.