Australia’s federal government will cut the funding of Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) and Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) by 1 per cent and save $43.5 million over four years, reports Radio Australia.

It is also going to cancel the ABC’s contract to run Australia Network, which broadcasts to 46 Asia Pacific countries including the Solomon Islands, India and Papua New Guinea.

ABC and SBS executives’ initial reaction is mixed, as they support of some measures while indicating others need more consideration, and have rejected others.

In a statement, ABC Managing Director Mark Scott said there will be redundancies and cuts to services.

Speaking to Radio Australia, he said: “It sends a strange message to the region that the Government does not want to use the most powerful communication tools available to it to talk to our regional neighbours about Australia.”

Earlier, the government said that Australia Network had failed to cost-effectively advance Australia’s interests in the Indo-Pacific region.