"Will it be left to critics of the ABC to launch a crowdfunding campaign, so that the ABC can be funded by its supporters rather than taxpayers? Why shouldn't ABC supporters put their money where their mouth is? How can they object to that?
Free the ABC from government! and Don't force taxpayers to fund what they don't consent to!"
- Gina Rinehart on Facebook today.
For once I'm in complete agreement with you Gina. Why should taxpayers trust their money to your belligerent bunch of bootlicks and brown-noses who lied their way into government promising to do the opposite of everything they've done? Why should we be forced to fund a government whose petty vindictive obsession with revenge has resulted in $280 million in cuts to the ABC and SBS and over 400 redundancies which we never consented to?
So can we expect you to put your money where your oversized mouth is? You see I'm not aware of anyone consenting to the $492 million in direct subsidies your industry received last year, or the $458 million in additional fuel credits we paid you. I'm also pretty sure no one consented to the mining industry paying the lowest corporate tax rate in the country, 14% when the national average in 21%.
When all this, plus the numerous subsidies, grants and tax-breaks from State governments (none of which we consented to either) is added up it comes to more than $4.5 billion per annum. That's not only enough to fund the ABC and SBS, it's also enough to cover most of the cuts to health, education and science, which we also didn't consent to.
So by all means free the ABC from government, but first of all free us from greedy, hypocritical billionaires and give us back our $4.5 billion. We'll decide what to spend it on.