The ABC has secured a lease for its new flagship studios in Parramatta the place 300 TV, radio and information workers will relocate from inner-city Ultimo to western Sydney in 2024.
The ABC managing director, David Anderson, instructed workers the brand new house of Aunty, at 6-8 Parramatta Sq., can be a “state-of-the-art match out” that may put the ABC “on the centre of a dynamic, purpose-built precinct” in Sydney’s western suburbs.
The content material makers who must transfer embrace ABC Sydney Radio, ABC Radio Nationwide and ABC Information.
The ABC may have house on the promenade and within the workplace tower, and passers-by will have the ability to see the broadcasting studios by means of the home windows, just like the Channel Seven studios in Martin Place within the Sydney CBD.
The transfer was flagged a 12 months in the past when it was welcomed by the then communications minister Paul Fletcher as a “good first transfer” after criticism from the Coalition that the ABC centered too carefully on inner-city Sydney. “Sydney shouldn't be Australia and Ultimo shouldn't be Sydney,” Fletcher stated.
However the ABC chair, Ita Buttrose, has denied the transfer has something to do with Coalition criticism.
“It’s not designed to appease any authorities, it’s a transfer that David Anderson and I and the board have determined is in the very best pursuits of the ABC,” Buttrose stated final 12 months.
“You'll be able to’t reside remotely from the remainder of the neighborhood and I feel as a result of our headquarters in Sydney are primarily based in Ultimo we’re a bit distant from the remainder of the neighborhood.”
The relocation plan, which has been funded by the sale of ABC property, is to have 75% of journalists and producers working away from Ultimo by 2025.
“Establishing this new facility in Parramatta is a major step in assembly our dedication to be extra native and engaged with the neighborhood and fewer centralised within the Sydney CBD,” Anderson stated.
“As a brand new facility, ABC Parramatta gives a uncommon alternative to construct one thing from the bottom up. It will likely be a house for innovation and collaboration, designed and outfitted to assist us higher serve Australians, now and into the long run.”
Anderson sought to reassure workers they'd be consulted in regards to the transfer.
“Our audiences can count on to see and listen to from their favorite and revered presenters and journalists from ABC Sydney, ABC Information and ABC RN,” Anderson stated.
“We anticipate that the method to develop ABC Parramatta, and relocate workers, can be full by early 2024.”
Parramatta Sq. has been developed by Walker and its govt chairman, Lang Walker, stated the ABC would change into “an integral a part of Parramatta Sq.”.
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The ABC has a long-term plan to relocate extra content-makers nearer to the communities they serve and lately considerably expanded its regional and rural protection by recruiting 57 regionally-based journalists.
The brand new hires have been made attainable by the information media bargaining code. Beneath the Coalition the ABC misplaced $526m in funding, ensuing within the lack of 640 jobs, from 4,704 workers to 4,064.
The ABC has welcomed plans for a brand new five-year funding time period from 2023 which can give the ABC monetary stability and safeguard in opposition to arbitrary cuts and political interference.
Labor pledged earlier than the election to increase the ABC’s funding from three to 5 years, and the communications minister, Michelle Rowland, stated the transfer would “take it past the three-year election cycle” and “safeguard in opposition to these arbitrary cuts and political interference that we’ve seen”.
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