Skip to content

Currency House event: Kim Dalton: Delivering on the promise: The ABC and cultural leadership – 17 May

“Kim Dalton is the author of Platform Papers 51, Missing in Action: The ABC and Australia’s screen culture, published 1 May. Kim Dalton is a respected broadcast and public policy professional, who as CEO of the Australian Film Commission led the policy debate around Australian content on television. As Director of ABCTV (2006–13), he increased funding for Australian programs and steered ABC TV into the digital era. Now, half a decade later, he reflects on how lack of governance and an inadequate, outdated Charter have undermined an effective policy framework built up over sixty years.

In his powerful essay, Dalton challenges Australia’s foremost cultural institution. At our breakfast he expands his discussion of the ABC’s responsibilities and the need for creative engagement with the independent production sector, and the cultural challenges of the digital world.

‘Using its status as an independent statutory authority’, he writes, the ABC ‘now disregards transparency, accountability and engagement with policy objectives, and instead pursues an internal agenda and its own priorities. He calls for a new Charter that defines the ABC’s responsibilities as a cultural leader; and sets proper measures to achieve them.”

PURCHASE TICKETS @ currencyhouse.org.au/node/231

Back To Top