ABC chair Kim Williams calls for greater investment into national broadcaster during first major speech since appointment

ABC chair Kim Williams spoke about his vision for the national broadcaster at the State Library of Victoria.  (ABC News )

ABC chair Kim Williams has outlined his vision in his first major speech since taking on the role, calling for more government funding to help revitalise the national broadcaster.

Mr Williams addressed an audience at the State Library of Victoria on Wednesday night, noting his desire to build a "strong accountability framework" within the ABC.

However, he said that goal would also rely on "greater investment".

"The ABC is an investment in Australia's future because a revitalised ABC will be a source of great national strength," he said.

"A great national campfire around which our stories can be told and can coalesce into a renovated national narrative about our future.

"A narrative able to draw all Australians a bit closer together to face up to and make sense of the disrupted times we are in.

"Such an investment will repay itself over and over and over again."

Mr Williams noted the ABC remains Australia's most trusted news source, as of March 2024, and his leadership would work to further bolster that reputation.

"We need to be on a never-ending quest to ensure those services are always striving to improve and remain as a relevant, stable 'first partner' for Australians when it comes to objective reporting and thoughtful analysis and commentary on Australia and the world," he said.

Mr Williams also spoke about the dangers of artificial intelligence on news publishing.

"Around the world, people are beginning to speak up about the size of the threat to our freedoms represented by the arrival in our midst of this giant, all-too-often angry machine, powered by a combination of digital technology, human emotions and artificial intelligence, which seems to have been designed purposefully to destroy facts, truth, reason, civility, trust, and – should we let it – democracy itself," he said.

"To paraphrase W.B. Yeats, this monster is causing things to fall apart, and the centre cannot hold.

"We can’t allow this to happen."

The speech, held at the Redmond Barry Society Dinner, also outlined an increase in serious television documentaries for the ABC, an expansion of drama/comedy programming and children's TV, more arts coverage, and improvements to the iview platform.

Mr Williams — a former News Limited CEO — was appointed to the role by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in March after former chair Ita Buttrose stood down at the end of her five-year term.

ABC