ANGER about the $254 million funding cut to the ABC led Toowoomba residents to protest outside the ABC Southern Queensland office in Toowoomba this morning.
A small yet vocal crowd of thirty people chanted "no ifs no buts, stop Tony's cuts" and held up signs to passing motorists.
Rally organiser and casual on-air ABC presenter Megan O'Hara Sullivan said the protesters weren't happy about the cuts and decided not to suffer in silence.
"The ABC is a loyal and trusted companion to many people," she said.
"Even though 30% of people don't live in capital cities there is a creeping metro-centralism.
"We're losing a medium to tell our story and hear the voices we want to hear which are things that are important to us in regional Australia.
"We fear that we will lose the national broadcaster for weather and emergency information."
Toowoomba residents upset about the recently announced cuts to the ABC protesting outside the ABC Southern Queensland studio. Andrew Backhouse
Friends of the ABC Queensland president Ross McDowell said the protest was about bringing to the attention of Toowoomba residents the "devastation of the cuts" to Australia's national public broadcaster.
"In rural areas people depend on the ABC for their news and for general entertainment," he said.
"If you take away or diminish those services, the people are the ones who are hurt.
"The ABC provides a popular service in Toowoomba and is free and independent."
Protester Daniel Carvosso said the cuts seemed to be a political attack on the ABC.
He said the cuts that worried him the most were to the state-based 7:30 Report programs.
Labor candidate for Toowoomba North Kerry Shine said he loved the ABC and had listened to it since he was a child.
"The reasons given for the cuts just don't wash with me, it's an ideological move by Tony Abbott.
"The ABC should be adequately and properly funded, it's a vital service to the community."
He said people in country areas were fond of the ABC and were devastated by the cuts.
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