November 11, 2011

First published at ABC Unleashed The phrase ‘the national interest’ is regularly abused, but by any reasonable interpretation, keeping the Australia Network in public hands is in the national interest. The first thing to get on the table is that by virtue of living here, most Australians probably have very little idea of what the Australia Network is. This is our TV broadcast voice in the Asia Pacific region, on a much smaller scale fulfilling an equivalent role to the BBC World Service or the Voice of America. It’s not entirely like the ABC we know – it carries