Australia’s Voice Overseas

Radio Australia

“to transmit to countries outside Australia broadcasting programmes of news, current affairs, entertainment and cultural enrichment that will ... encourage awareness of Australia and an international understanding of Australian attitudes in world affairs ...” (ABC Act Section 6(1)(b))

Radio Australia battles on. Since its inception it has been mainly focussed on the countries to our north and the islands of the Pacific. It built up a devoted staff of journalists who developed a deep understanding of the peoples of the region and who could communicate to many of these people in their own tongue. It developed a strong reputation for integrity and clarity particularly in news and current affairs bulletins. Australians in many parts of the region relied on it for accurate home news and poured forth their appreciation of its quality.

Languages

In the first 30 years it came to broadcast in many local languages. In 1997 these numbered only nine, and with further budget cuts at this time, this number was reduced to five (plus English), namely Bahasa Indonesian, Mandarin, Kmer, Vietnamese and Tok Pisin (for PNG). Many people become literate in English by listening to RA and through its formal lessons taught in their own tongue.

Extent of RA’s signal

RA’s voice, prior to the 1997 closure of the powerful Cox Peninsula short wave transmitter new Darwin, reached as far north as Siberia and the Indonesian archipelago, Vietnam, Cambodia and Malaysia. Out of Shepparton in Victoria and Brandon, the transmitter near Townsville, it reached a wide area of the western Pacific and New Guinea. There were relays to North America and Europe. From 1997 when the ABC’s overall funds were drastically reduced, the Cox Peninsula transmitter was closed off to RA for a few years, the signal reached no further northwest than Bali and northward only to southernmost Asia. The Cox transmitter was then sold by the government in 1999 to the religious organisation Christian Voice. Time was rented back for RA transmission in a limited manner from 2001. By a series of negotiated agreements with foreign groups transmitting in the region the radio signal was indirectly extended to all of Indonesia, the Mekong region, with southern China and into East Asia. Many of the indirect connections however were subject to the agreement of the other party from this time on.

Time on air

Due to diminished funding, time on air has been reduced throughout the region. In Indonesia before 1997 it stood at 24 hours per day, but now stands at four hours, in China two and a half hours, New Guinea three hours a day and Vietnam and Kmer one hour per day. The world-wide Radio Network has been reduced from four hours to two hours a day. The problem now is not so much of technical access as the cost of time on air. How much depends on how much funding.

Diminution and near abolition

In 1997 RA was close to being abolished altogether. At that time, audiences within Australia could hear Radio Australia Overnight programmes on News Radio but none other so that its services were little known to the Australian public. When ABC funds were cut, therefore, and the public feared for regional services, there was little or no clamour for RA’s preservation. The Mansfield Review of the ABC commissioned by the Federal Government came down in favour of RA's abolition. It was finally decided in Cabinet that it should continue in a drastically reduced form. Foreign languages were reduced from nine to five. Funding was halved and its staff likewise. In subsequent years, there were some adjustments but annual funding was at $25 million in 1995/96 and now stands at approximately $14 million.

Satellite Transmission

RA’s renting space on the same satellites as ABC TV Asia Pacific (see below) namely PAS (Pan Am Satellites) numbers 8 and 2, now transmits on the FM band, by agreement with their governments, so far to four cities in the region, Phnom Penh, Suva, Dili and Port Moresby, in English and local languages.

RA online

RA established an online service in the early 1990s which has flourished and continues (www.abc.net.au/ra). In addition in March 2001 the specialist (as to content) new ABC gateway www.goasiapacific.com was launched under the aegis of RA. (Updated June 2005: this has now been discontinued.)

Despite its vicissitudes RA has maintained its high standard of journalism as manifest to those who do manage to listen to its “Asia Pacific Program” within Australia and is credited with effective penetration to everyday citizens in 26 countries of East Asia and the Pacific island region.

ABC Asia Pacific TV

In December 2001 ABC Asia Pacific TV was reinstated. It had been formed in 1993 under the ABC proper but had been unsuccessful and when sold to Channel 7 still failed. From 31 December 2001 it has operated under funding provided by DFAT rather than the Department of Communications. It remains otherwise broadly under the ABC Board.

In 2001 $90 million were accorded thus over 5 years and commercial sponsorship, as ads, has been allowed for supplementary income. Time on air is leased from the two satellites PAS (Pan Am Satellites) numbers 8 and 2 which together provide a footprint covering an area from North China and Korea in the north, the Cook Islands in the east, Papua New Guinea in the south and eastern India in the west. It also transmits by cable. Its voice/image remains on air 24 hours a day. It is only in English.

By establishing a series of agreements with countries in the region the service has forged ahead and now provides for 38 countries. It appears it has been welcomed especially for news and current affairs pertaining to the region. It is recognised as elitist as compared with Radio Australia, reaching hotels and institutions and individuals equipped with a dish—as compared, e.g., with a transistor radio. The aims of ABC Asia Pacific have been intended to be similar to those of RA, namely to give Australia its own independent voice in the region and promote friendship and understanding and inform its listeners/viewers on Australian culture, way of life, economy and trade. There has been an emphasis on education including English language lessons. To quote Donald McDonald AO, ABC Chairman in "Opinion Piece" for The Australian 11/9/04: “International broadcasting ABC-style is based on working with others … … The renewed focus on the differences between Islamic nations and the West has added urgency to the discussion about how we might better conduct our international relationships”.

In 2003 a number of sponsors, mainly westerners, pressed for more programs to be provided to please them and a policy change allowed more direction to “a wider audience” with more programs from UK & USA. This approach was apparently accepted by DFAT, but as at July 2004 75% of programs for now and the future were to be of Australian origin.

TV Asia Pacific has also been expected as with RA to provide information for Australian expatriates in the region, as per the ABC Charter.

In this format the service has prospered though the public is not acquainted with any balance sheets for either of its overseas broadcasters in the ABC’s annual report.

Limitations of Overseas Broadcasts for Australians in Australia

Programs broadcast by RA and ABC Asia Pacific TV are strictly limited on the Australian mainland. For years RA broadcast to the region concurrently with the mainland on Radio Australia Overnight. As at November 2004, RA’s only times, assigned by Radio National (specifically as ‘Asia Pacific’) by which it is distributed within Australia, are lam and 5am four mornings a week and a compilation of those four programs at 7:35–8am on Saturdays. TVAsia Pacific is able to broadcast on Channel 3 just once a week on the mainland at 10:35am–11am on Sunday mornings on Asia Pacific Focus. Both have their own Online services.

© Helen Wiles
November 2004

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