Michael West Media · AAP · Monday 23 March 2026
Thousands of ABC staff have voted to strike after rejecting an enterprise bargaining offer featuring a below-inflation pay rise and unresolved concerns about AI replacing editorial work.
The national broadcaster's staff are striking because management offered them a pay rise that doesn't keep up with the cost of bread, then threw in an AI clause that essentially says 'we'd like the right to replace you with something cheaper and less argumentative.' The ABC has spent a decade being starved by governments who call it bloated, and now it can't feed its own workforce. Every side of politics claims to love the ABC the way a man loves a dog he won't take to the vet.