Watch the documentary: A Conversation with Corin Fairburn Bass
In 1976, four friends met to discuss the Fraser Coalition government’s latest threats to reduce ABC funding and plan a community-based response. These four friends, Walter Bass, Corin Fairburn Bass, Faith Bandler and Hans Bandler decided to hold a public meeting in Anzac House in Sydney and were delighted that Anzac House quickly filled with ABC supporters.
Soon after, the Friends of the ABC NSW (now ABC Friends NSW&ACT) was established with Walter Bass (Bassie) elected as President. A second public meeting was held in the State Theatre with Andrew Denton as emcee and guest speakers including Corin who spoke passionately about her personal connection with the ABC as a musician and relative newcomer to Australia. The State Theatre quickly filled to capacity with a queue of ABC supporters extending around the corner to George Street. These four friends knew that the ABC had extensive community support, setting a wave of change in motion.
Fifty years on, ABC Friends has grown into a movement of over 92,000 members and supporters nationally with approximately 40 branches in urban and regional communities of Australia. The contribution that friends of the ABC in NSW&ACT have made to this advocacy movement can be traced back to an enduring friendship and a shared common purpose: to protect our ABC.
In this informal documentary interview, Corin Fairburn Bass, one of the organisation’s founding members, sat down with Dr Tess Howes, President ABC Friends NSW&ACT, to reflect on almost five decades of activism for and on behalf of the ABC.
Key points include:
- Refugees from Nazi Europe who became some of the ABC’s fiercest early defenders, having seen firsthand what happens when authoritarian regimes silence the media as one of their first acts of oppression.
- The friendship between two Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camp survivors, Hans Bandler and Wolfgang Bass, reunited by chance in Sydney, became a strong founding bond of the movement in NSW.
- ABC supporters filled Anzac House and the State Theatre in 1976, demonstrating extensive community support for the ABC.
- Corin explains why she still believes writing to politicians is effective: one letter, she says, speaks for a hundred people who feel the same way but don’t pick up a pen.
Find out more on the ABC Friends – the first 50 years website
Corin’s message to the next generation of supporters is simple and direct: imagine Australia’s media landscape with no ABC at all. No independent voice, no national conversation, no children’s programs, no Australian drama, documentaries, nothing but commercial noise and advertising. Is this the media landscape you want for Australia? If not, throw your support into ABC Friends and do something!
As Corin puts it:
When you’ve got something of worth, don’t ever let it go.