The $254 million to be slashed from the ABC's budget dwarfs the $59 million in savings identified in a recent efficiency review, Mark Scott has revealed during an impassioned defence of the public broadcaster and its staff.
The ABC managing director used a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra on Thursday night to question the rationale behind sweeping cuts unveiled by Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Wednesday.
Staff will be told on Monday what programs and services will be axed and how many jobs will be lost, but Mr Scott has given his strongest indication yet the changes will be sweeping. He told a Senate estimates hearing that the board has been hunting for extra savings to pay for redundancies and free-up funding for a new push into digital broadcasting. The number of redundancies would be "very significant", he added.
Mr Scott said the $59.1 million in savings identified in a recent efficiency review by media executive Peter Lewis would cost $76 million to implement.
Programming will inevitably be hit, Mr Scott said - a direct rebuke to the insistence of Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull that the savings should come from back-office changes.
"There are content impacts of making efficiency decisions," Mr Scott said. "If the ABC shuts down digital radio, is that a content question or an efficiency question? I think it's both."
Mr Scott admonished Education Minister Christopher Pyne for claiming he had not replied to Mr Pyne's petition to retain television production in Adelaide. He also described as "bewildering" comments from News Corp chief executive Julian Clarke that the ABC should not be expanding its digital footprint. Mr Scott offered to mail Mr Clarke a copy of the ABC charter to prove the ABC was meeting its obligations, not straying from them.
The $254 million to be cut from the ABC's budget over the next five years is an overall reduction of 4.6 per cent. Some $25.2 million will be cut from SBS over the next five years.
Mr Scott said the size of the cut would be closer to 8 per cent by the end of the five years once the cost of redundancies and the loss of the Australia Network were taken into account.
During earlier questioning, SBS corporate affairs, strategy and communication director Peter Khalil said job losses were unlikely at the multicultural broadcaster.
"I can say that as part of the efficiencies that we're looking at to meet these cuts there are no planned redundancies as such," Mr Khalil said.
Coalition MPs are nervous about the electoral impact of the decision to cut funding for the broadcasters, with Nationals Senator Bridget McKenzie on Thursday joining Mr Pyne in seeking assurances from the ABC that the funding cuts will not affect services in her area.
MPs fear how constituents will react and must walk a delicate path between defending the government's economic strategy and petitioning the broadcaster not to cut programs and services. Rallies protesting against the cuts have been organised around the country.
Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce said earlier this week he also wanted assurances that rural and regional news services would not suffer.
Mr Pyne took to Twitter on Thursday to note his petition to retain TV production in Adelaide had attracted more than 2000 signatures.
A defiant Mr Turnbull has said the cuts would not be reversed and noted Mr Pyne had voted for them when the proposal was put to Cabinet.
"The Cabinet's made a decision and all of the Cabinet is jointly and severally for that matter committed to it," Mr Turnbull said.
The government has been criticised by the opposition for breaking an election promise on the public broadcasters' funding.
"The Liberal Party have read a book of hypnotism and they are trying to hypnotise the Australian people that whatever Tony Abbott said before the election didn't happen," Opposition leader Bill Shorten said.
"On the night before the election Tony Abbott in a desperate race to buy the votes of the Australian people promised them solemnly, there was no ambiguity, no weasel words, no buts or maybes or fingers crossed behind his back or toes crossed. What he said is 'no cuts to the ABC'.
Former ABC board member Janet Albrechtsen yesterday said Mr Scott had failed in his role as editor-in-chief of the organisation.
Ms Albrechtsen said Mr Turnbull had delivered a "strong rebuke" to Mr Scott's leadership when handing down the budget cut.
"Mark Scott came to the ABC as managing director, purporting to be a strong editor-in-chief. I think he has failed in that role," she said.
