One hopes that one of PM Abbott's tasks in his first term is,...

One hopes that one of PM Abbott's tasks in his first term is, first, to take ABC staff outside the purview of the Public Service Act so that they lose tenure and can easily be hired or fired and, secondly, makes the ABC accountable.

The second is rather problematic as successive Chairmen and Boards have been railroaded and stone-walled by the staff union. The way around that as I see it is to either fully privatise the ABC or make it a GBE [government business enterprise] so that it is required to raise sponsorship to fund itself and pay a dividend to revenue. I think it would make an amazing difference to ABC accountability - what a salutory effect it would have on moderating left wing political views if the ABC is out seeking sponsorship from industry, and mining instead of taking cheap shots from a taxpayer funded ivory tower.

One thing is sure. A new Chairman charged with making the ABC profitable and appealing to a middle class audience would have no room for acolytes like Phil Adams, Kerry O'Brien, Virginia Trioli and a host of others whose range of political viewpoints can be spanned with a small table cloth.

They would hardly attract ads from Toyota or Woolworths running the kind of red-rag line they do now.