McKew to Challenge PM: ABC faces further cuts

Yesterday's announcement that former ABC journalist Maxine McKew will stand for Labor preselection in the NSW seat of Bennelong, prime minister John Howard's electorate, has sparked outrage among senior Liberals, who had hoped nobody would notice the large number of recently married male doctors in the area.

Whilst Mr Howard himself remains tight-lipped about the challenge, Senator Helen Coonan has already begun firing ABC boardmembers.

"For over ten years now this government has been the sole source of funding to the ABC, and look how they repay us" said one senior Liberal. "It's scandalous, really bloody disgraceful what's going on here. All these years of interviewing Liberal politicians and claiming to be unbiased - the public should feel betrayed. This explains why she wasted so much of our time with those really annoying questions about refugees and stuff."

Liberal Party strategist Clayton Roby was similarly disgusted, telling The Daily Worry that it was the role of the ABC to remain unbiased against the government - "look, you don't see A Current Affair attacking James Packer do you? The ABC has become a breeding ground for anti-conservative hacks. I've always had my suspicions about Kerry O'Brien, and that Tony Jones is just a nightmare. The public is demanding action."

Asked what the Liberal Party planned to do about the anti-government culture at the ABC, one junior minister explained that the government had a plan to increase the efficiency of the ABC by decentralising its operations and outsourcing them to existing providers - "it's basically a rehash of the Job Network scheme, except Kevin Rudd's wife can't get rich off this one."