AustLit

'Kim Dalton, OAM, is a long-respected broadcast and public policy professional, who as CEO of the Australian Film Commission from 1999 overhauled its development programs and led the policy debate around Australian content on television. As Director of ABCTV (2006–13), he moved the corporation into the digital era, and now looks critically at the present state of the ABC and broadcasting. Over the last sixty years, he writes, Australia had developed an effective public policy framework that strategically connected Australian broadcasters, screen content and an independent creative and production sector to produce it. 

'Yet today the ABC operates outside this framework. Using its status as a statutory authority to eschew transparency, accountability and engagement with public policy objectives, the ABC now pursues an internal agenda and its own priorities. Governance is lacking; new measures are needed to return the ABC to its chartered place as a contributor to Australia’s screen culture.' (Publication summary)

'Achievements by the ABC to significantly increase levels of local drama, comedy, documentary, Indigenous and children’s content, as well as expand partnerships with independent production houses and creative talent, have in recent years been reversed.' (Introduction)