Regional news, sport hit by ABC cuts Regional news, current affairs and sports coverage at the ABC will be slashed and more than 400 jobs lost as budget cuts start to bite the public broadcaster. Managing director Mark Scott has revealed a raft of proposed changes to programming, operations and structures to offset $254 million in lost government funding over the next five years. Around 10 per cent of ABC's workforce faces the axe, including management, with foreign bureaus restructured and a post opened in Beirut. "It's a sad day for all of us - no one takes any joy with the job cuts that we face," Mr Scott said. It's a very significant job cut and those job cuts are going to have an impact right across the organisation. Prime Minister Tony Abbott has denied he broke an election pledge not to cut funding to the ABC and SBS. Mr Abbott insisted his government had "fundamentally kept faith with the Australian people." "We never promised special treatment for the ABC or SBS," he told parliament on Monday. Five regional radio posts - in Wagin (WA), Morwell (Vic), Gladstone (Qld), Port Augusta (SA) and Nowra (NSW) - will be shut down, as well the ABC's Adelaide television production studio. As predicted, state editions of the ABC's 7.30 program will be axed and replaced with a national show on Fridays while Lateline will be moved to a new fixed timeslot on ABC News 24. ABC TV will scrap its outside broadcast vans, with state-based sports competitions including the women's soccer and basketball leagues, Sydney club rugby and other state football leagues facing the chop. Under flagged changes to radio, hourly news bulletins will be halved to five minutes and fewer concerts recorded for ABC Classic FM. Radio National's rural program, Bush Telegraph, will be axed, and a number of documentary and feature shows decommissioned. The other 40-plus proposals include the sale of its site at Artarmon in Sydney and reviews of procurement, switchboard, mail room and HR systems. New regional and digital network divisions are also planned. Using the savings, Mr Scott said a "war chest" of $20 million will be established to reinvest in online and mobile. Mr Scott said he didn't want the ABC to be viewed as "negligent" down the track when the "revolution was very clear." "The ABC is too important to fritter away its future by short-term thinking now," he said. We will need to continue to pursue efficiencies. We want to do nothing to sacrifice quality as we attempt to try and meet our legitimate audience expectations. The $254 million cut is 4.6 per cent of the ABC's budget and means it will now receive about $5.2 billion over five years rather than $5.5 billion. ABC Friends, which helped organise rallies against the cuts at the weekend, said it was dismayed at the damage the government had inflicted. "We now know the government's cuts will have a devastating impact on the national broadcaster's capacity to do its job," spokeswoman Glenys Stradijot said. Veteran presenter Quentin Dempster said cuts to regional and rural production meant the ABC would have less diversity in local news. "At least it's highlighted a fact that we've already bloody well known, that ABC is Sydney-centric," he said. ABC chairman James Spigelman said the board supported the proposed changes.