ABC Friends

The first 50 years

ABC Friends began when a handful of individuals in 1976 decided to take action against funding cuts to the Australian Broadcasting Commission.

Fifty years later, ABC Friends has branches across Australia and over 90,000 supporters.

From the start, ABC Friends has been a non-partisan organisation. It has protested against government interference of the ABC across the political spectrum and, at times, it has criticised the ABC itself. Its objective is a well-funded, independent public broadcaster for Australians.

This is the story of ABC Friends, in the words of the people who made it.

Scroll down and choose your own pathway through 50 years of activism– you can listen to the voices of campaigners, watch reports of major events, and read about the challenges they faced to ensure the survival of an institution regarded as essential to Australian democracy.

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Andrews, Kylie Trailblazing Women of Australian Public Broadcasting, 1945–1975, Anthem Press, London, 2022.

Bandler, Hans ‘Mass Communication for the Younger Generation’, Quockerwodgers: Mass Media Control, Australian Mass Communications Council, Sydney, 1973, pp. 35–37.

Berg, Chris and Sinclair Davidson, Against Public Broadcasting, Connor Court, 2018.

Bongiorno, Frank Dreamers and Schemers: A Political History of Australia, La Trobe University Press, Melbourne, 2022.

Dempster, Quentin, Death Struggle, Allen & Unwin, 2000.

Inglis, K.S., This is the ABC: The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1932–1983, 2nd ed, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2006.

Inglis, K.S., Whose ABC? The Australian Broadcasting Commission, 1983–2006, Black Inc., Melbourne, 2006.

Ganter, Sarah Anne,Christian Herzog and Viola Candice Milton, ‘Public Service Broadcasting-Friends groups as a microcosm of public interest media advocacy’, Humanities & Social Science Communications, vol. 7, no. 68, 2020.

Griffen-Foley, Bridget ‘Chronically Concerned’: The Australian Broadcasting Commission and its Advisory Committees’, Media History, Vol. 31, No. 3, 2025, pp. 279–310.

Harding, Richard Outside Interference: The Politics of Australian Broadcasting, Sun Books, Melbourne, 1979.

Holmes, Jonathan, On Aunty, Hachette Australia, 2019.

Iveson, Kurt, ‘Building a City For “The People”: The Politics of Alliance-Building in the Sydney Green Ban Movement’, Antipode, vol. 46, no. 4, 2014.

Molomby, Tom, Is There a Moderate on the Roof?: ABC Years, W. Heinemann Australia, Port Melbourne, 1991.

Lawrence, Mark, ‘How ABC acquired an abundance of nieces and nephews’, The Age, Green Guide,23 November 1978, p. 2.

Napoli, Philip M., ‘Public Interest Media Advocacy and Activism as a Social Movement’, Annals of the International Communication Association, vol. 33, no. 1, 2009, pp. 385–429.

Newspapers: The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times

National Archives of Australia

Paul, Meg, ‘Public Pressure Groups in Broadcasting’, in Brendan O’Dwyer (ed.), Broadcasting in Australia: Today’s Issues and the Future. Proceedings of the National Conference held in July 1980, Centre for Continuing Education, Australian National University, Canberra, 1980, pp. 137–43.

Ricketson, Matthew & Patrick Mullins, Who needs the ABC, Scribe, 2022.

Stephens, Tony, ‘Bandler, Ida Lessing Faith (1918–2015)’, Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/bandler-ida-lessing-faith-15982/text30791, accessed 16 January 2026.

Stephens, Tony ‘Bandler, Hans (1914–2009)’, Obituaries Australia, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://oa.anu.edu.au/obituary/bandler-hans-19329/text30793, accessed 16 January 2026.

August 1996: rallying season

Rallies have traditionally given the public a chance to declare their support for a cause: a slew of rallies took place in August 1996 to let ABC supporters do precisely that.

The first, at The Domain in Sydney on 4 August, was organised by ABC staff – journalists Maxine McHugh and Quentin Dempster shared the stage with Jemima from Play School and the Bananas in Pyjamas, before Christine Anu, Roy and H.G. and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra among others entertained an estimated crowd of 60,000.

A stall run by NSW Friends of the ABC enabled 4,000 letters to be written by members of the public to politicians. Among the many speakers was magistrate Pat O’Shane, who took issue with Bob Mansfield saying he did not want the inquiry he was then chairing into the ABC to become ‘emotional’. Pat O’Shane’s response was to declare ‘we are entitled to be emotional about the things we care about and if he can’t stand our emotional heat, he should get out of the kitchen cabinet.’

ABC rally at The Domain, Sydney, The Sydney Morning Herald, 5 August 1996, p. 3.

Rallies continued across Australia. Friends of the ABC in Queensland spokesman George Blair spoke at an event in Brisbane on 10 August calling for ‘protection’ of the ABC.

The Herald Sun, 11 August 1996, p. 14.

While in Melbourne, the City Council provided the Melbourne Town Hall for a rally and concert on 12 August organised by Friends of the ABC.

Flyer promoting the rally. ABC Friends Archives.

June Factor’s committee produced a stylish program for the occasion. It was almost a manifesto, with statements affirming the value of the ABC from groups such as the Council on the Ageing Victoria and the Victorian Council for Civil Liberties, as well as listing ’10 good reasons’ to save the ABC.

Save Our ABC rally program, 12 August 1996. ABC Friends Archives.

Glenys Stradijot, then a Friends of the ABC Victoria volunteer and later employed as campaign director, remembers the part the ABC itself played in the Melbourne rally.

In September, ABC Managing Director Brian Johns addressed a Friends of the ABC rally in Adelaide, describing the proposed cuts as ‘not a pruning exercise, but wrenching’ in their impact. He made a point of referring to ‘the public outcry’ shown by the rallies.

The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 1996, p. 2.

ABC Friends

The first 50 years

Part 1: 1976 – 1985

Part 2: 1986 – 1995

Part 3: 1996 – 2005

Part 4: 2006 – 2015

Part 5: 2016-2026

August 1996: rallying season

ABC Friends

The first 50 years

Explore our history

Part 1: 1976 – 1985

Part 2: 1986 – 1995

Part 3: 1996 – 2005

Part 4: 2006 – 2015

Part 5: 2016-2026

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