In recent times the Minister for Communications, Senator Richard Alston, seems to have been so blinded by the desire to sink his boots into the ABC that he is constantly contradicting himself.

Back in the year 2000 our confused minister wanted the ABC to chase ratings and drop its ‘esoteric’ programs. Now he wants the ABC to drop ‘frothy’ programs and give more attention to educational programs.

Chase ratings
He (Senator Alston) said only about 10% of Australians tuned in to the ABC and it would be hard to justify a funding boost unless ratings or audience reach improved, suggesting it dump some of its more esoteric programs. “The ABC is funded by taxpayers; taxpayers expect value for money; the ABC ought to be concentrating on generating greater levels of audience reach,” Senator Alston said.          Illawarra Mercury 20/11/00

Don’t chase ratings
Communications Minister Richard Alston has lambasted ABC management for putting ‘frothy’ lifestyle and comedy programs ahead of educational shows such as Behind The News, which was axed in this week's $26.1 million round of budget cuts.
AAP 6/8/03

Last year when the ABC established a new internal complaints process with a Complaints Review Executive headed by Murray Green, Senator Alston congratulated the ABC. 

Congratulated
A spokesman for Senator Alston said last night the minister had been fully briefed on the new system and was pleased. “The government supports the change and Senator Alston has been personally advocating a complaints mechanism at the ABC that is independent of program makers for more than four years.” he said.         The Age  27/8/02

When Mr Green rejected all but two of the Minister’s  sixty eight complaints Senator Alston  changed his position. Speaking on the AM program Senator Alston said:
Castigated
“Well I think the system of the ABC being judge and jury in its own cause is certainly not one that inspires public confidence. It's, I think, almost impossible to take that seriously because inevitably there is a very strong temptation to favour the explanation that favours your side of the argument, and as a result I think we go through a lot of time and effort, this has taken some eight weeks I think now, to achieve a result which is, I think, in the public's view, entirely unsatisfactory.” AM program 25/7/03 

Confused
Senator Alston is either himself confused, or is seeking to confuse the public. He keeps speaking as if there was no external review of the ABC, when the ABC has repeatedly informed him that if he is unsatisfied with the internal process the law provides for review by the Australian Broadcasting Authority, the members of which are appointed by his government.

Sprint backflipping
When the ABC recently announced program cuts as a result of the funding shortfall Senator Alston initially said that the cuts would have little effect. The very next day, as public outrage mounted, Senator Alston changed his mind. He said that the cuts would have an effect, and that the ABC should have made cuts in different areas.

Good decisions
“The ABC board's decisions announced today show that the ABC does have the ability to live within its means without adversely affecting its vast suite of programs,” Senator Alston said.    AAP 4/8/03

“These budgetary decisions will have minimal impact on the ABC's core programming and demonstrate the ability of the ABC board to take the sort of tough decisions that private and public sector organisations face on a daily basis,” Senator Alston said.    The Australian 5/8/03

Bad decisions
But Senator Alston said yesterday the decision by ABC managing director Russell Balding to axe BTN was unjustified given the commitment to a new popular culture show, Mondo Thingo, to be fronted next year by former Sydney breakfast radio presenter Amanda Keller.

Senator Alston, who attacked the ABC's coverage of the Iraq war as biased, originally praised the broadcaster's belt-tightening but said yesterday management should have found a way to spare BTN. `We have had a number of phone calls from people asking why on earth the ABC has done this,’ he said.  “It's not my job to give him[Balding] free advice. He might well think he owes the public an explanation.”   The Australian 6/8/03

DARCE CASSIDY