I covered the possibility of ABC Australia returning to the airways, in my Bits & Bytes column, Australia...the debate continues, in the just released winter edition of Global Radio Guide, now available at Amazon https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07L3RYTPG
Australia’s Labor Party wants to turn the Australian Broadcasting Corp.'s SW transmitters back on in the country’s remote Northern Territory
James Careless, 03 Dec 2018
OTTAWA — Assuming it wins the next Australian federal election — due to be held by May 19, 2019 — the country’s Labor opposition party has pledged to restore shortwave radio service to Australia’s remote and sparsely-populated Northern Territory.
At the time this was written, the Labor Party was leading the government’s Liberal/National multi-party coalition in voter preference by a margin of 4.5 percent; according to The Australian newspaper’s Nov. 25 Newspoll.
Funding
The shortwave service was killed by the state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Jan. 1, 2017 as a cost-cutting move. The shutdown, which is reputedly saving the cash-strapped ABC AU$1.9 million annually, turned off international broadcasts of Radio Australia and the ABC’s domestic service. They had been broadcast from ABC transmission facilities at Katherine, Tennant Creek, and Roe Creek (Alice Springs).
Additional story at: https://www.radioworld.com/news-and-business/opposition-will-restore-shuttered-abc-shortwave-broadcasts