The Australia Institute has an ongoing program of research into policy options around the ABC. Several of our research papers relate to the ABC’s operations in rural and regional Australia and the ABC Charter. Most recently, polling we commissioned in January 2016 shows strong public support in Tasmania for increased funding for the ABC in order to strengthen regional news services. 58% of Tasmanians support the proposal while 22% oppose and 21% are undecided.

This research builds on a larger study from 2015. In that report we found strong support for increased ABC funding related to regional news and other regional content. Support for such a funding proposal is unsurprisingly strong across rural and regional Australia, up to 64%, but also strong in capital cities, 58%. The research shows that support is also strong across political lines and in all electorates studied.