Labor leader Bill Shorten has reached out directly to Australia’s multicultural communities by holding a press conference for non-English speaking media in Sydney.
Mr Shorten spent more than an hour addressing journalists from Vietnamese, Nepali, Indian and Arabic speaking media and a large Chinese contingent.
He promised no cuts to SBS.
“In terms of our public sector broadcast funding... we are not interested in making further cuts to SBS - full stop", he told reporters, including Senior Political Correspondent Daniela Ritorto who asked the question.
“We haven't been excited about the proposals to merge SBS with the ABC. We think that it's important that we have an independent SBS, because we think that you provide an irreplaceable function, since you have you been created”.
In the May budget, the Coalition promised an extra $9.7 million in funding for SBS for the next financial year, and $15.3 million over four years.
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