Margaret Reynolds

Margaret Reynolds had a long association with the ABC before she became the inaugural president of ABC Friends National in 2016. As a Queensland Senator, she had raised the issue of the ABC’s regional service in parliament. She had also been a member of the Queensland Advisory Council in the 1980s.

After her retirement from federal politics, Margaret Reynolds moved to Tasmania. She became president of Friends of the ABC Tasmania in 2012. She hadn’t initially planned to attend the ABC Friends meeting convened for all states in Adelaide in June 2015, but did attend to represent Tasmania and from then, became closely involved with the setting up of a national Friends organisation. She acknowledges it wasn’t always a smooth process.

Margaret’s experience with federal politics meant she was able to make the most of ABC Friends delegations to lobby in Canberra. She was also aware of a need to complement this at the community level, with visits to local MPs to press for their support of the ABC.

Margaret Reynolds retired as ABC Friends national president in 2022. She was made a Life Member of ABC Friends Tasmania in October 2021 – and is still active in her support for the ABC and ABC Friends.

ABC Defenders Appeal

ABC Defenders campaign, 6 December 2017.

Q&A Question from ABC Friend

ABC Friend Marcus May poses a question on Q&A, 23 April 2018.

2018 Rallies

With the ABC under threat from several directions in 2018, supporters of the ABC mobilised to make their position known to the broader public and politicians of all parties. Writers, actors, musicians and ABC presenters spoke at rallies to capacity audiences.

In 2018, Ed Davis had only recently been elected president of ABC Friends NSW (he had previously been active in Friends of the ABC during the 1980s). He remembers the way supporters were energized by the need to act.

2019 Federal Election

ABC Friends worked hard during the 2019 federal election campaign. It was a chance to remind friends and neighbours of the enormous contribution the ABC makes to Australian life – and the opportunity in an election to ensure its survival. Videos were posted on social media to encourage support – and financial contributions – for ABC Friends.

State and local branches were active on the ground, alerting the public to ABC budget cuts.

Many states prepared ‘how to vote’ cards, asking candidates their position regarding the ABC and scoring candidates accordingly.

In Victoria, ABC Friends committee member Marcus May was part of a group coordinating the state campaign. They decided to try something new – a series of billboards.

National Campaign Coordinator Jeff Waters built on the use of social media from the 2016 election, producing customised material directed at targeted postcodes within electorates. 

Meantime, Marcus May’s group in Victoria considered other ideas for publicity during the campaign.

2022 Election

The 2022 election was a nail-biting time for ABC Friends, as it decided what to say and how to say it. Social media platforms were proliferating, and no one had seen Senator Bragg’s intervention coming – it meant all existing flyers, posters and corflutes had to be scrapped. States scrambled to come up with new designs.

ABC Friends National ran campaigns through Facebook and emails directed to its database of members and supporters. State branches tailored campaigns to targeted seats, holding rallies and putting boots on the ground in conjunction with their own social media advertising.

In Sydney, supporters packed inside the NSW Teachers’ Federation auditorium for a live-streamed event.

The ABC Friends Northern Suburbs of Sydney (NSOS) branch was preparing for its first federal election. The group had only formed in 2019, following the AFP raid on the ABC Ultimo offices. The branch founder was Janine Kitson, who was increasingly frustrated at the refusal of their local member, Paul Fletcher, to meet the group. At one point, they travelled to Canberra to make their point.

As the 2022 election loomed, Janine Kitson decided that she would stand herself as an independent – giving the ABC a place on her policy platform.

Janine did not win the seat of Bradfield at the 2022 election. But the Northern Suburbs of Sydney branch continues to be one of ABC Friends’ most active.

ABC Friends NewGen

ABC Friends NewGen Swinburne presentation, 24 November 2023.

Photo Gallery

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.’

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.

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.

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.

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.